bch2014

Though I haven’t lived full-time in New England since 2014, I’ve always lurked/participated on these forums. I was in Texas 2014-2019 for a combination of college and work. I missed a great winter in 2014-15, but graduated a semester early which allowed me to be back in New England for most of the meat of the 17-18 winter which was great. In late 2019, I moved back to the northeast and have endured the worst 5 1/2 year stretch of snow in my life (I’m 30). I think the best storm that I witnessed in-person was the Dec 18 (ish?), 2020 event in NYC. After this beatdown, I gave up on winter and we are moving to the Santa Barbara area in two weeks. We moved out of our place in Hoboken yesterday and are staying with the in laws on the North Shore of Long Island as our moving truck makes its way across the country. Great, I thought we were going to be in the bulls eye for this event-one last hurrah! But, no! We hit a local minima and got 3-4” as surrounding areas got 7-8”. One final gut punch. 65-75° year around and the bi-weekly trek to the Sierra for snow doesn’t sound so bad after all.

At my in-laws in Old Field, only about 4” here-seems like a relative loser compared to the rest of North Shore Suffolk.

I am moving to the Carpinteria, CA area in early January... Any SoCal/Central Coast posters on here?

It’s weird-I’m to your southwest in an urban heat island (Hoboken) and we’ve had multiple frosts. You live in a very specific microclimate.

He (and a few others) still post trip reports on the FirstTracksOnline forum. Lots of great content-especially of European and California destinations.

Storming in Meredith, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Totally - still can't resist looking as a .

I have begun intense model-watching, as I am getting married in Westhampton on Saturday 5/31. Weather looks unsettled at 240+ range... Crossing my fingers!

Question: I was in Warsaw this week and we saw snow on Thursday. Trying to understand how anomalous that is? Does anyone know where you can find European historical data?

Does anyone know where to find historical Europe weather obs? I am in Warsaw right now, on the 29th floor of a building, and it was snowing outside for about 10 minutes. Unclear if it hit the ground-but trying to understand how anomalous this would be at this time of year.

At the Yankees game-beautiful day but insane home run derby with the wind blowing out.

If you’re looking for cheaper lodging, checkout areas in the French Alps like Serre Chevalier, Isola, and La Grave (famous amongst the extreme skiers). To @amarshall’s comment regarding elevation dictating lodging prices, the French Alps have a particular elevation/snow quality gradient that exists elsewhere, but is less pronounced. Keep in mind that for a storm coming off the Atlantic, the first large mountains are it hits are the French Alps. With that brings warm air… If you go further east, you’ll generally find that snow levels drop. 1600m on the Arlberg is roughly equivalent to 2000m in the French Alps.

Les Trois Vallees is generally one of the most snow-sure areas of the Alps, so you chose well (assuming you booked at advanced notice). That, and, the Arlberg region of Austria are probably the best at advanced notice (though we got skunked there at Christmas 2022). Places like the Dolomites, the Maritime Alps (i.e. Isola 2000, Auron), and the Southern Swiss Alps (i.e. St. Moritz) are much less snow sure but great when they're "on."

Does anyone in this thread have any Chamonix experience? I'll be skiing there on 1/31 and 2/1 and have a question regarding terrain selection for a guided day. Pending snow conditions and weather, my friend and I are planning on spending 1/31 skiing at Les Grands Montets, as we hear that it has the best lift-served/on-piste skiing in the valley. If the weather is poor, we can audible to Brevent or Les Houches. For our second day, we want to do a day of guided skiing to get off-piste. The most famous run is the Vallee Blanche, but it seems that it's less about the skiing and more about the scenery and the "experience" (i.e. the stop for lunch halfway down the valley, etc.). Quite frankly, I spend a lot of time of time in France for work, so I'm more interested in the highest quality ski experience possible rather than the dining/culture aspects as I already get plenty of that. If you've done the Vallee Blanche, would you say I'm being stupid and that we should just do it, or can you recommend other guided zones that might be more worthwhile?

Leaving for MPL for work on the evening of 12/1 for the week, returning on 12/6. Would love for a cold coastal to cancel my trip.