NNE Spring Thread

[Allenson]

Powder--great way to spend Easter, man. I reckon even Ullr needs a rest every now and then to recharge. I'm already feeling a big big winter for us in NNE next year, so I think he'll come back tan, rested & ready.

Now it's time for Eostre to take over for a season or two while the Old Man rests.

I've officially declared winter finally over here at our locale. It seems to have broken for good just yesterday. Other than a sizeable patch of native snow in the back yard where it's still a foot deep in the middle (always the last spot to melt here) and the deep-dark woods snow below the house, there's nothing left but plow piles and roof-slide piles. And more importantly, the frost is finally out of the ground here.

Despite mostly cloudy skies yesterday, we had our wamest day of the month reaching 58F.

Big rains tonight & tomorrow?

[J.Spin]

As of this morning, the depth of snow at our back yard stake has reached zero, so I’ve updated my Waterbury snowpack plot and added it below. This means that the last day with snow at the stake was 4/12, and the average I have for that value is 3/27 ± 14 days, so this season is a couple of weeks later than that average. The next benchmark I’ll monitor will be when the final snow in the yard is gone, and based on data I have from ’07-’10, that average date is 4/12 ± 10 days, so roughly a couple of weeks later than when the snow has melted out at the stake. As of today, the yard snowpack has been around for 130 days, but that is actually still below average (138 ± 14 days) because of the late start to the season; the start of continuous snowpack this season was on the later side at 12/5 vs. an average of 11/27 ± 9 days. Unless the rest of the snow in the yard melts unusually fast however, the end result of the snowpack season will probably be somewhere around that average value.

The last of the snow in the yard melted yesterday (4/24/2011), so I can finish off that portion of the seasonal numbers. The data for the last of the snow melting out in the yard (as of this season the mean date is 4/15 ± 10 days) is actually something I’ve recorded all the way back since our first winter here (2006-2007) and April 24^th is one day later than the previous record I had down (April 23^rd, 2007). This puts the continuous snowpack season in the yard at 141 days, which is exactly the same number recorded for ’06-’07. Both of those seasons had slow starts with poor November snowfall, and snowpack that did not become established until early December, so they are well behind the highest value of 152 days recorded for the 2007-2008 season. The next benchmark I’ll monitor will be when the last of the snow melts out in our neighborhood, which tends to be about a week beyond when the snow melts out at the house.

I’m still working up some snow pictures from the weekend, but with the above similarity to April 2007 I figured I’d add in some of the text I had with my skiing stuff. As I was skiing at Bolton on Saturday I was reminded of some outings in April ’07, and realized that while the snowpack is in excellent shape this spring, the skiing this month has really paled in comparison to the equivalent period back in ’07. Even down at this elevation we had almost two feet of snowfall in April ’07, and this season we’ve had just 4.4 inches. I’m not sure what the mountains have had this April, but in ’07 it was measured in feet; I skied one day mid month on the mountain where I found up to 19 inches of new snow, and that was for just one of the storms. The reading from the Mansfield stake on Friday was certainly respectable at 82 inches, but for the same date in ’07 it was actually at 84 inches. It’s really been just an issue of the storm track this April; the moisture has been there, but the track has been too far to the north/west to get into the appropriate combination of precipitation and temperature. With a good track over the past few weeks we probably would have had another April 2007 on our hands. I think that the past couple of springs have been so poor in the snowfall department that some perspective has been lost on April’s potential, this one is good in terms of base/snowpack, but I’d say subpar for snowfall (we’re still below average by a few inches at the house).

[tamarack]

Yikes, Hope it all works out for you, I am holding out as long as possible on surgery, Sounds like yours had to be done, I have not got to that point yet, Just dealing with leg numbness, But my doctor wants to do a 2 level fusion (4 Vertabrae) on mine........

Double the fun...ouch. Taking too much air on the sled? Mine was at the point where any fall could've severed the cord, quad for sure and maybe no breathing. Having the timely MRI (set up via cell as we drove east thru IN/OH) and getting into surgery so quickly was a real blessing. Worst thing now is the cervical collar - impossible to get comfy while lying down, so maybe I'll try sleeping in a chair.

Down to patches of snow in the woods here, nothing left of the yard's snowpiles. Peepers opened up in yesterday's 58 temp; wood frogs began "quacking" 3-4 days ago. Looks like some mild and rainy wx this week, to bring the earthworms up. They may get free reign in he garden this summer, as I'll probably have to skip and work there before early-mid June.

[eekuasepinniW]

Last of my natural snowpack melted overnight. *\o/*

The remains of a couple snowbanks will linger another 2-3 days or so.

I have pictures from previous years at this time that show small but fully formed maple leaves on some trees and my star magnolia in full bloom. Still looks dead as ever out there today, though the grass on the front hill is getting a greenish tint to it.

[TalcottWx]

3 weeks left

[dryslot]

Double the fun...ouch. Taking too much air on the sled? Mine was at the point where any fall could've severed the cord, quad for sure and maybe no breathing. Having the timely MRI (set up via cell as we drove east thru IN/OH) and getting into surgery so quickly was a real blessing. Worst thing now is the cervical collar - impossible to get comfy while lying down, so maybe I'll try sleeping in a chair.

Down to patches of snow in the woods here, nothing left of the yard's snowpiles. Peepers opened up in yesterday's 58 temp; wood frogs began "quacking" 3-4 days ago. Looks like some mild and rainy wx this week, to bring the earthworms up. They may get free reign in he garden this summer, as I'll probably have to skip and work there before early-mid June.

Tamarack, Sounds like you had an emergency situation, Hopefully everything works out for you, No, Actually riding does not effect my back as well as sitting, Standing for long periods of time and walking is another story, Mine is bad but not to the extent yours was, 4 degenerative 1 herniated 1 slipped 2.5 degrees couple of stress fractures arthiritis and basically worn out from overuse over the yeras of heavy lifting when i was in construction

Kind of cloudy here and fairly warm with temps around 58 degrees, Need to get thru this week of gloom so to dry things up to get out and play golf

[eekuasepinniW]

Days like this where the clear sky/overcast line sets up directly overhead and remains stationary put me on tilt. I need sun for the greenhouse but it's just not gonna happen, I guess.

Looks like a mostly clear day on my cam since it points north.

[TalcottWx]

Days like this where the clear sky/overcast line sets up directly overhead and remains stationary put me on tilt. I need sun for the greenhouse but it's just not gonna happen, I guess.

Looks like a mostly clear day on my cam since it points north.

LOL at first glance I thought your entire town was under water

[tamarack]

Tamarack, Sounds like you had an emergency situation, Hopefully everything works out for you, No, Actually riding does not effect my back as well as sitting, Standing for long periods of time and walking is another story, Mine is bad but not to the extent yours was, 4 degenerative 1 herniated 1 slipped 2.5 degrees couple of stress fractures arthiritis and basically worn out from overuse over the yeras of heavy lifting when i was in construction

Kind of cloudy here and fairly warm with temps around 58 degrees, Need to get thru this week of gloom so to dry things up to get out and play golf

A strange kind of emergency, in that I didn't know how serious things were until last Wed, 2 days before surgery. Glad to hear the snomo isn't "no mo'". Those older stresses/injuries come back to pester. I've no idea when my disc damage started, though I (and the Drs) are convinced it was long before symptoms began in late Feb. Might date all the way back to 1981, when the pickup in which I was riding hit a loaded log truck (+/- 70 tons) nearly head-on. Rather modest speeds, but I had ducked down sideways along the dash (didn't wear seatbelts in the woods in those days) and my head/neck/torso went from +25 mph to about -20 in half a second. Insurance totaled the pickup from just the photo.

Partial sun has boosted temps up to 60 or a bit above. Assuming it's at least 60, 1st time this year. All the trees still look like midwinter, except for aspens with their catkins. Lawn showing some "non-brown" spots; golf courses down your way should be about ready, if we don't get too much rain this week.

[powderfreak]

I must've missed these shots the other day... but man that's awesome. I love that sort of thing and can honestly say I've never seen one of those windshield rollers in person before. Sweet photo, Dendrite.

[powderfreak]

LOL at first glance I thought your entire town was under water

Haha, every time I look at his cam I need to remind myself that its supposed to look like that and those are garages for boats, not cars.

[powderfreak]

A strange kind of emergency, in that I didn't know how serious things were until last Wed, 2 days before surgery. Glad to hear the snomo isn't "no mo'". Those older stresses/injuries come back to pester. I've no idea when my disc damage started, though I (and the Drs) are convinced it was long before symptoms began in late Feb. Might date all the way back to 1981, when the pickup in which I was riding hit a loaded log truck (+/- 70 tons) nearly head-on. Rather modest speeds, but I had ducked down sideways along the dash (didn't wear seatbelts in the woods in those days) and my head/neck/torso went from +25 mph to about -20 in half a second. Insurance totaled the pickup from just the photo.

Partial sun has boosted temps up to 60 or a bit above. Assuming it's at least 60, 1st time this year. All the trees still look like midwinter, except for aspens with their catkins. Lawn showing some "non-brown" spots; golf courses down your way should be about ready, if we don't get too much rain this week.

Best of luck, dude...

And man is it amazing how warm 65F feels here after the past week where it snowed on 3 different days. Feels almost humid, too... but dew point is only 40F or so... I would've pegged it for near 50F.

Heavy rain incoming, and although most inhabited elevations are now snow-free (below 1,500ft), there's still significant snow/water above that elevation, so I bet we see some flooding out of this. I know the river (West Branch) that winds through my backyard and the rest of town, will be coming up significantly as all the snow melt and rainwater on the east side of Mansfield drains down through here. We are only a few miles downstream from the base of the mountain, so it never really floods here (that seems to happen further downstream towards the village center and Moscow) but it looks impressive when its raging a muddy torrent and there are root systems floating by.

[MaineJayhawk]

My last snow pile probably dies off tomorrow. The folks across the road have a snow berm that might make it to May.

[dryslot]

A strange kind of emergency, in that I didn't know how serious things were until last Wed, 2 days before surgery. Glad to hear the snomo isn't "no mo'". Those older stresses/injuries come back to pester. I've no idea when my disc damage started, though I (and the Drs) are convinced it was long before symptoms began in late Feb. Might date all the way back to 1981, when the pickup in which I was riding hit a loaded log truck (+/- 70 tons) nearly head-on. Rather modest speeds, but I had ducked down sideways along the dash (didn't wear seatbelts in the woods in those days) and my head/neck/torso went from +25 mph to about -20 in half a second. Insurance totaled the pickup from just the photo.

Partial sun has boosted temps up to 60 or a bit above. Assuming it's at least 60, 1st time this year. All the trees still look like midwinter, except for aspens with their catkins. Lawn showing some "non-brown" spots; golf courses down your way should be about ready, if we don't get too much rain this week.

Yeah, Most courses are open, But i won't be out until they have carts out on our home course, They were shooting for later this week but the rain tomorow may set it back some we shall see, Good luck in your recovery......

[TalcottWx]

I am getting trained by tstorms... i keep getting big boomers... there must be some dynamics aloft powering them cause its in the 40's... pouring hard

[dendrite]

Still looks like 1 more day in the crapper for us today. Then 70s Wed/Thu.

[#NoPoles]

Still looks like 1 more day in the crapper for us today. Then 70s Wed/Thu.

ok this whole warm front vs the cold pocket of air thing in Canada is getting old...i'm thinking i have to pack a complete outfit change for work today...i work outside in in the Worcester area...start the day off dressed in fleece and long underwear...to change into hiking pants and a t-shirt by lunch time...though i'm not sold on the WF passage...thinking it might by damp and cool and dreary the whole day...

[klw]

I am getting trained by tstorms... i keep getting big boomers... there must be some dynamics aloft powering them cause its in the 40's... pouring hard

Be glad you did not post this in the SNE thread. I would hate to see how they would have edited this.

[hvysnow79]

It absolutely poured last night from around midnight through 2am, had 1.54" of rain sitting in the bucket. We had numerous lightning and thunder embedded with the heavier rain, one strike knocked out power for a couple hours.

[dryslot]

I am getting trained by tstorms... i keep getting big boomers... there must be some dynamics aloft powering them cause its in the 40's... pouring hard

Those storms came thru here about the same time as they went thru your area, Well over 1" of rain associated with those cells..

[borderwx]

4/26 - last of the ski trails going out. Lookin like the stihl and I will be spending some quality time together this weekend to get the bike trails opened up.

[dendrite]

56.5F with low overcast. 70s have now poked into extreme SW NH and SW VT. Extreme jealousy seeing those widespread 70s/80s in SNE.

[mreaves]

56.5F with low overcast. 70s have now poked into extreme SW NH and SW VT. Extreme jealousy & bitterness seeing those widespread 70s/80s in SNE.

Added to

[J.Spin]

Funny that you should mention The Shed. We go there with our hike club most years on our VT weekend. Six months till that weekend and usually my first glimpse of snow (at least in the air) in the mountains. Though last year they had that big dump on Mansfield early and the guys encountered over a foot on there. That's a nice long season this year from first to last (not yet) snowfall.

Mansfield is certainly good for snow in some form most months of the year; the snowpack at the stake persists into June on average, and then there's a shot at some flakes at least in September, but certainly by October, which is almost a lock. It's July and August that are the most difficult to see any sort of snow/frozen precipitation, but some of the caves up there do hold onto snow well into the summer. In any event it's a pretty short off season for snow.

It's cool that you guys go to The Shed, it's a bit of an icon. My parents used to go there back in the 60s when they would ski Stowe, and I believe my dad said it was one of the few options for après ski back then.

[dendrite]

Socked into the U40s...47.3F.

All guidance has the warm fropa coming through 12-15z and then soaring into the U70s this afternoon.

[borderwx]

great light show last night ! multiple flooded roads this morning - looks like the big hills are draining some snowpack

now if the B's could just stay of the sin bin...

[Allenson]

We've had pretty good T&L shows the past two nights. Two nights ago was more impressive than last. Picked up 0.81" Monday night and 0.25" last night. Everything is gross & sodden out there.

Never got too warm here yesterday--topped out at 57F.

4/26 - last of the ski trails going out. Lookin like the stihl and I will be spending some quality time together this weekend to get the bike trails opened up.

Amazing how similar those woods look to ours--residual snow, small spruce & fir, deep & dark. If yours are anything like ours, it takes a while early in the season to get a good pack in there but at the other end, it takes a while to scour all the snow out. I'll take a shot of our woods this morning for comparison's sake.

[J.Spin]

I haven't seen any snow with this system, but last night’s precipitation seems worthy of note because we had 2.30 inches of liquid and the Winooski is back up even with our local VAST bridge as it was on the 11^th, despite the fact that most of the snow has already melted in the lower elevations. Some area schools are closed due to road access issues with this event. I just summed my CoCoRaHS numbers for April and with this latest event the total liquid is right at 8.00 inches for the month thus far. While I had that open I grabbed a few additional liquid numbers. For the 2011 calendar year up to this point at my reporting location the liquid precipitation is at 20.46 inches, for the 2010 calendar year the total was 54.17 inches, and for the ’10-’11 snowfall season as it currently stands (October 15^th, 2010 – April 16^th, 2011), the total was 28.09 inches.

[borderwx]

We've had pretty good T&L shows the past two nights. Two nights ago was more impressive than last. Picked up 0.81" Monday night and 0.25" last night. Everything is gross & sodden out there.

Never got too warm here yesterday--topped out at 57F.

Amazing how similar those woods look to ours--residual snow, small spruce & fir, deep & dark. If yours are anything like ours, it takes a while early in the season to get a good pack in there but at the other end, it takes a while to scour all the snow out. I'll take a shot of our woods this morning for comparison's sake.

its been great, the tweener season where you can't ski or really walk the woods is over. the residual snowpack and run off has been leaving a low lying fog every morning to make things extra spooky.

Bill Mckibben wrote in his book Long Distance, " I don't know how people who don't have access to the woods relieve stress", or something close to that. Either way, I can appreciate the sentiment.

J- your number collection is inspiring.

reminds me, I have to put the rain guage back out today.

[tamarack]

Last of the visible snow patches are gone. I'm sure I could still find some in the woods, but that's off-limits as long as I remain "collared" - into early June, at least. GYX currently keeping the WF south of here - low 60s the forecast max, and upper 60s tomorrow just ahead of the CF. Maybe we'll get some thunder then, though the best action remains to our west, very typical. I hope this season's TS do better than last. I recorded 8 days with thunder in 2010, lowest year by 3 and only half the avg. Thta's especially ironic as we had more svr watches last year than in any other year I can recall. We never had even a moderately strong TS, much less anything approaching svr. Had to visit IL for that.

Sky is brightening a bit. Given the morning minimum in the upper 40s, won't take much to clear 60 here.