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NNE Winter Snow Thread II


dryslot

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Here next to the water I'm not sure it'll even accumulate. Business is going to have to pick up. It's just melting on contact now. Hopefully inland ... 'bout 20 miles or so ... it's ripping fatties and I'll arrive to a couple inches.

Well, to answer that, it's not here. The temp is 33, with steady light to sometimes moderate snow. All of the roads and black surfaces are just wet with melting, but the trees are all covered with about an inch so far I would say. This will all come down to how long it lasts when it redevelops, and if it can hold on into the night when the sun starts to go down.

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Well, to answer that, it's not here. The temp is 33, with steady light to sometimes moderate snow. All of the roads and black surfaces are just wet with melting, but the trees are all covered with about an inch so far I would say. This will all come down to how long it lasts when it redevelops, and if it can hold on into the night when the sun starts to go down.

Thanks, Matt! I was hoping you'd have a report. Looks like it wants to start accumulating here.

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An interesting observation that I'm not sure I've actually seen happen before...

At 2pm as snow was tapering off, myself and a friend (ski patroller), found a tad over an inch (estimated 1.25 or so, but rounds down to 1") at the 3,000ft snow board. That number surprised me as it seemed like more at the base so I figured we'd find around 3" up there. There were no other tracks in there and no one had cleared the board.. It is exceptionally well sheltered and there was no sign of drifting. Anyway, we get down to the bottom and the 1,500ft snow board and found just over 2". The increases in the snow depths from this morning mirrored these numbers.

For the life of me I just can't figure out how 1,500ft got roughly 2.25" (2"), while 3,000ft got 1.25" (1"). We did additional measuring around the sites and it was true. Even the parking lot at the base had over 2". My ski patrol buddy who has been taking these snow board measurements for years said he has seen this happen before, but obviously its rare.

The only thing I could come up with is that we were seeing slightly larger flakes down in the base area at 27F than we were up top at 19F. Maybe the cloud that sits on top of Mansfield's ridgeline was riming the flakes falling in that area, while further out away from the ridgeline and associated fog bank the flakes were retaining arms to build loft? Very, very interesting to see first hand... and the mountain skied like that, too. The conditions actually got better as you got lower in elevation and the new snow depth increased.

So as of 2pm...

3,000ft...1" NEW...61" depth

1,500ft...2" NEW...30" depth

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An interesting observation that I'm not sure I've actually seen happen before...

At 2pm as snow was tapering off, myself and a friend (ski patroller), found a tad over an inch (estimated 1.25 or so, but rounds down to 1") at the 3,000ft snow board. That number surprised me as it seemed like more at the base so I figured we'd find around 3" up there. There were no other tracks in there and no one had cleared the board.. It is exceptionally well sheltered and there was no sign of drifting. Anyway, we get down to the bottom and the 1,500ft snow board and found just over 2". The increases in the snow depths from this morning mirrored these numbers.

For the life of me I just can't figure out how 1,500ft got roughly 2.25" (2"), while 3,000ft got 1.25" (1"). We did additional measuring around the sites and it was true. Even the parking lot at the base had over 2". My ski patrol buddy who has been taking these snow board measurements for years said he has seen this happen before, but obviously its rare.

The only thing I could come up with is that we were seeing slightly larger flakes down in the base area at 27F than we were up top at 19F. Maybe the cloud that sits on top of Mansfield's ridgeline was riming the flakes falling in that area, while further out away from the ridgeline and associated fog bank the flakes were retaining arms to build loft? Very, very interesting to see first hand... and the mountain skied like that, too. The conditions actually got better as you got lower in elevation and the new snow depth increased.

So as of 2pm...

3,000ft...1" NEW...61" depth

1,500ft...2" NEW...30" depth

Pinkham Notch in NH has gotten 2ft+ snow events before while little snow has fallen on MWN. As cloud tops lowered it's possible snow growth continued to increased a bit with descent. Not sure about the riming, but if you had a magnifying glass you could get a better look at the crystal structure. Pretty neat.
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Pinkham Notch in NH has gotten 2ft+ snow events before while little snow has fallen on MWN. As cloud tops lowered it's possible snow growth continued to increased a bit with descent. Not sure about the riming, but if you had a magnifying glass you could get a better look at the crystal structure. Pretty neat.

Also, during storms MWN is usually blowing at hurricane force, so I have heard a lot of times the snow will just blow right over the summit. MWN 90% of the time records far less snow during major snow storms, then the valleys do I notice. I do agree with you though that sometimes there will better snow growth lower down, but I can't help be questioning how they always record less during BIG storms. The smaller ones seem to be fine up there. Wind seems to be a big big factor.

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Snowing now. Gotta love the little "gustfront" you get when finally overcoming the virga.

Noticed that as I was nearing my AUG workplace about 1 PM (late due to Dr. appt in Farmington), and a few little thingeys were hitting the windshield. I was passing the hospital parking lot, and saw more of a "dustfront" as the wind produced some sizable brown clouds, followed by more visible -SN. Ten minutes later visibility was down to 3/8 mile, but that lasted only five min, then barely visible tiny flakes until 2. Since then it's been steady -SN, lawn dusted in places but no more.

GYX has backed 2" off the foothills, now a 3-5" WWA as 1st low weakens too soon and 2nd strengthens too late. If the new amts verify, it's still better than expected when viewed 2-3 days ago. Saw pics of 3" in Oak Ridge, NJ, about 15 miles NW from my old NNJ home; glad someone's gotten an overperformer.

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Pinkham Notch in NH has gotten 2ft+ snow events before while little snow has fallen on MWN. As cloud tops lowered it's possible snow growth continued to increased a bit with descent. Not sure about the riming, but if you had a magnifying glass you could get a better look at the crystal structure. Pretty neat.

This happens a lot to valleys out west. Snowgrowth continues as the flakes pass through temperatures and RH that are supportive of this process. I'm not sure 1500' is that big of layer to make a difference, but maybe riming is partly to blame?

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Interestingly I just measured 3.0" new snow on the board with 0.25" w.e. so that is 12:1. I'm tempted to go out and do another one from a different board to be sure. CON has only had 0.22" liquid so far so maybe I'm not hallucinating.

31.3F with a steady snizzle. Mostly needles.

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