powderfreak

It’s been an enjoyably average winter up here so far. After multiple years of winter months with massive departures (like +8 months at times), having sustained cold and sustained snowpack has led to a fun winter to date. Expectations are low. Compared to recent years, the consistent cold, dry settled snow on the ground has led to a more normal January vibe. It isn’t deep, but even a 7-14” of consistently cold snow depth makes for a wintry month. Mansfield Stake depth at elevation tracking slightly above normal. @J.Spin with a similar track compared to normal snowfall down at low elevation. It’s pretty crazy the mirroring going on between the Mansfield summit COOP depth and J.Spin’s snowfall relative to normal.

This is a good reminder. I also sometimes think that one good blizzard can make a season in some spots of SNE, but those are exceedingly rare. This isn’t the Gulf Coast. Multiple warning events are needed to get to climo and it just hasn’t come close for many so far.

Its been much colder than normal lately as you head south. We’ve been below freezing for a while but the coldest anomalies are definitely south. -10F here vs 26F half a foot of powder on the GOM palm tree beaches… what’s more impressive .

A normal January in progress up here. The past couple days have featured -15 and -14 departures but the monthly departure is +0.7. It still takes an act of god to get a below normal month. We’ll take average. Normal temps in the means, 24/10 average down in the valley, which is more than enough cold for a winter month to feel like a winter month.

People also take emoji reactions far too seriously. I also think sharing opinions on weather is why we are here.

They are either jaded or beat up, burnt out. Just not excited about winter in any way or fashion. Taking out frustrations.

Insane.

Suppression depression takes on a new meaning. Or LBSW?

We are only 8F because of light snow showers (down to 1.75sm vis)… not able to radiate under this weak plume of moisture stretching all the way from Lake Ontario.

These are warning level snows here in New England. Never going to see this again in our lifetimes.

True, but you don’t go to the panhandle in January for warm weather. I just can’t get over the scenes. The vegetation doesn’t line up with snow. And this isn’t a pasty snow. The literal GOM beaches are getting cold powder. Wild.

It would be more exciting than anything up north so far though, and in a normally tropical environment… it would be a mind f*ck to see.

The fact that NOLA has more snow on the ground than most of New England is wild. Same as my yard.

The photos from the beaches with legit 6” tire tracks through dry powder… it’s insane. The GOM beaches look like the Mansfield parking lots after a snow.

Yeah it’s not warm. It’s not really unusual for January in the north, but it’s still something you don’t want to be stuck out in. Stowe Mountain Rescue had a long one yesterday in the Notch. Three teens wandered off Spruce at the end of the day and got cliffed out. Then it got dark and very cold. SMR did a high angle rope rescue and got them down to the road at like 11:30pm. This crew are certified badasses.

The p-type is insane. Like it’s snowing over the off-shore Gulf oil platforms lol.

Impressive to see the WSW and winter weather down to the Gulf Coast. Huge expanse of cold weather advisories. Then there’s this winter storm coming out of the Gulf and FL Panhandle.

It has been a breezy and well-mixed month in regard to air masses. That has led to warmer nights that cause the radiators to show higher anomalies. Those without rad cooling baked into their normals have had lower departures BTV with a lower departure than MVL and 1VP in January so far. Despite the latter two spots being colder overall.

I will say this month has felt cold but the average says +2.4 at MVL. Wild. It has been a cold January compared to the +5 to +8 winter months in recent years. The recent years definitely have altered my perception of “cold.”

Thanks for the photos, those are worth a post. Interesting that up on Lake Champlain, places like Mallets Bay are frozen over with folks walking around out on the ice. A ton of open water, but it’s been cold enough where the bays are freezing over. Give it another month and see where the ice is at. Is that really Lake George right now?

Legendary run.

HIE coldest ASOS. Makes sense. Coldest night of the season so far.

You’re going to the moon tonight. Around here not sure how much lower we go as the top of the Quad at 3,600ft is only at -7F. We are already inverting early in the night.

-8/-14 at MVL ASOS at 9pm. -8/-12 at neighbor’s PWS. Cold one out there.

A difference of a half an inch over 3-4 miles is well within the range of possibilities. Your shop got like 5.7” and home got 6.1” or something. Talking like a couple hundredths of an inch of QPF difference there.