NNE Spring Thread

[dendrite]

Still sitting at 36F with a steady -RA now despite little on radar. It'll be interesting to see how much we mix out. CON is 42F, the Manchester RWIS 54F, and the Salem RWIS 63F.

[powderfreak]

it is snowing hard... huge aggregates are creating a low-vis snow now. Still struggling to accumulate on the parking lot and paved surfaces, but its sticking sideways to the trees, haha.

And there's a decent amount of precipitation to go... wondering if we can pull 2-4" out of this.

[Ginx snewx]

it is snowing hard... huge aggregates are creating a low-vis snow now. Still struggling to accumulate on the parking lot and paved surfaces, but its sticking sideways to the trees, haha.

And there's a decent amount of precipitation to go... wondering if we can pull 2-4" out of this.

MRG's web streaming web cam shows it's dumping.

http://www.madriverglen.com/?Page=cams.html

[HoarfrostHubb]

My job

Tim Kelley made this little clip yesterday... and by "blogging" Tim is referencing back when I was in college I was a paid by Hearst Argyle Television stations, writing ski and ride forecasts for their affiliate stations in Boston, Manchester, Portland, and Burlington. I used to do a lot more actual forecasting a few years back (still can't believe they actually paid me to write about snow conditions and weather), but now I think I have it even better... getting paid 8 hours a day to ski around, check out conditions, take photos & video, and generally be the go-to person at the resort for anything weather or snow related. I am technically a marketing employee but I am based out of our Mountain Operations building.

The other fun thing about this job is that it is the one position that will get you into the decision-making circle (VPs, directors, etc) at this resort, as I am in constant communication with the two VPs and CEO regarding how weather is going to affect our operations. I'm also the first person here at the mountain in the morning (literally the first, I turn on the lights) so I need to assess any situation that has come up overnight or any weather that will impact our operations. Then our two VPs usually call on their drive in to get updated on the day's operations... on "weather event" days we discuss the need to reduce ticket rates, etc. We also have a daily meeting at noon that includes all of the directors and mountain operations managers, and basically we just discuss conditions, snowmaking & grooming plans over the next 24 hours, snow management, any issues with lifts, etc.

In general, it is a heck of a lot of fun for a weather nut like myself to have a paid job where all I do is monitor the weather, check snow stakes, and watch the snow fall all winter long.

Good for you! That is so awesome. I wish you well. Are you trained as a met at all?

[Allenson]

Cold, wet & foul here in Hanover and turning to snow out near the house per webcam:

[Allenson]

LOL, didn't expect snow today. Another cam shot from Hart Hollow, near home. Snow fallin', snow lyin' (as the Brits say for snow on the ground):

[powderfreak]

Snow continues to fall on the mountain... I just left a little while ago and the snow level was around 900ft. Its mostly just raining here at 800ft in the village at 34F. Accumulating snow level was more like 1,300-1,500ft. At the base area at 1,500ft it has been snowing since 10am but its the middle of the day in April and just too marginal at 32F to get real accumulations. There's .5" to .75" on old snow, but pretty much nothing on the cars and parking lot.

Here's a photo from 1pm after 3 hours of steady light to moderate snow at 1,500ft... showing how difficult its been to accumulate on any non-white surfaces:

However up on the mountain is another story. Only a couple hundred feet above this elevation (~1,800ft or so) the snow is having absolutely no problem accumulating, and I'd assume that's the elevation at which temps are comfortably below freezing (30-31F). From 1,800ft up there was 1.5"-2" down at 1:30pm and steady snow continues to fall. Here's a shot looking up from the Gondola base area... winter continues in the higher elevations and with the 2" from yesterday and more today, I'm curious if the snowpack on the upper mountain comes out with a net gain, as we really didn't see much rain. It got warm overnight, but groomers reported no significant rain as the convection down south robbed us of moisture during the warm sector.

Radar continues to churn out moderate 30dbz+ over Mansfield, so hopefully we get get to 4" or so above 1,800ft.

[powderfreak]

Over to wet snow now in the village. Green Mountain spine looks to be getting hit hard as WNW winds upslope into the mountains. Very fun to watch moisture stream in from the WSW aloft, only to have upsloping winds cause precipitation to blow up east of BTV.

[wxeyeNH]

snow mixing in with the rain 36.5F at 1100 feet

[Allenson]

At this rate, we're going to be getting slushy snow out in the hills till May. I'm fine with the snow, I'm just ready for the mud to dry out.

Although, that being said, this has been one of the more painless mud seasons in my recent memory anyway....at least around here.

[borderwx]

Can't imagine the frost is to deep this year, other than the new years thaw we've had insulation on the ground all season.

been spitting snow/rain here all day

anyone wanna place bets on a run of high 80's later this month. no data. just feels like that kind of year where you don't think the snow will ever melt and then whammo!

[wxeyeNH]

Enjoyable late afternoon. I am sitting right at the rain/snow line at 1100 feet. There will be a sheet of big snowflakes then it will go over to rain. Then another sheet of snow. 3 minute car trip at the bottom of my hill its raining. 3 minutes further up the hill its pure snow. I love stuff like this! Can't see all the way to the top of our hill at 1700 feet as its in the clouds but I would guess the trees are coated.

[J.Spin]

I only saw rain in Burlington today, although I could tell that the precipitation was changing over to snow in the mountains as the “wall of white” appeared off to the east. In the evening around 6:00 P.M. as I was traveling in Waterbury and the precipitation was still mostly rain, but the ice crystals were clearly visible in the drops on the car windshield and I knew the snow line wasn’t too far above us. I figured I’d see in the morning if things changed over to snow here at the house, but once I started hearing ticks on the window, I knew we’d already gone over. I looked outside around 9:00 P.M. and we had quite a good graupel storm going on with a couple tenths of an inch of accumulation on the snowboard. I peeked at the radar and saw that there could be a decent stream of moisture passing through the area, so we’ll see if anything else accumulates this evening.

[powderfreak]

What the heck happened last night!?! Winter is not going down without a fight...

2.3" overnight at my place in the village... 3" in the parking lot at the ski area base and the groomers are reporting 4-6 inches new on the upper 2/3rds of the mountain. "Four-to-six inches easily...you won't be able to tell what we groomed last night."

Roads are snowpacked and icy, winds are gusty with blowing and drifting snow... feels like January out there!

[powderfreak]

Here's the Morrisville webcam from near MVL... does not look like April 6th, haha. Solid snowpack with a fresh coating of white.

And the NOAA Mansfield cam that's at the BTV airport showing the Mansfield cloud. Upslope brought several inches of snow overnight.

Over in the Adirondacks, it looks like the Lake Placid area did well with this storm...

[Allenson]

Endless Winter. Topped out at only 38F yesterday and had 0.8" of snow last night. More snow than that fell but it didn't start to accumulate till after dark.

Also, last night's snow fell as what I call "star snow" which I normally associate with the heart of winter, post CF, upslopey type stuff. Dipper was there in full glory and yet flakes were a-fallin'. In April no less, not January!

7.1" for April so far and still 24" at the stake.

Can't imagine the frost is to deep this year, other than the new years thaw we've had insulation on the ground all season.

A couple years ago, BTV installed a frost depth gauge here. I haven't looked at it for a week or so but I'll dig it out this morning and see what it says. At last look, even under a couple feet of snow, it read 10"

80s by month's end? Yeah, wouldn't surprise me. The switch will flip eventually....!

[mreaves]

Endless Winter. Topped out at only 38F yesterday and had 0.8" of snow last night. More snow than that fell but it didn't start to accumulate till after dark.

Also, last night's snow fell as what I call "star snow" which I normally associate with the heart of winter, post CF, upslopey type stuff. Dipper was there in full glory and yet flakes were a-fallin'. In April no less, not January!

7.1" for April so far and still 24" at the stake.

A couple years ago, BTV installed a frost depth gauge here. I haven't looked at it for a week or so but I'll dig it out this morning and see what it says. At last look, even under a couple feet of snow, it read 10"

80s by month's end? Yeah, wouldn't surprise me. The switch will flip eventually....!

Iheard Roger Hill this morning mention 60's this weekend, with some areas possibly approaching 70° on Monday. I would welcome that, snowmobile trails are done, time to get the golf courses rolling!

[MaineJayhawk]

It snowed down here in the lower elevations as well. Had 0.1" of icy stuff coating everything. The road crews decided against treating roads, which made for some interesting areas, particularly downhill slopes with 45° turns.

Iced over my wiper fluid nozzles as well (hadn't thought about clearing them out before I took off). Kinda sucked when the sun glare hit me and I pulled on the lever and nothing happened other than the fluid pump whirring impotently.

(Boys cryin' for their mommas ...)

[borderwx]

squall city up here yesterday and this morning. could time the arrival of snow as it rolled over the Mts. furious. my daughter was hiding under the jacket hood coming home.

21F, strong NW winds this morning, make your eyes water kind of wind pre squall, occasional heavy snow/styrofoam balls in the squalls.

could shoot a puck an easy mile the roads were so iced over.

[klw]

I knew something was up when I heard the plow scraping the road a little before I got up this morning. I measured over 2 inches on the tiles on the back patio and we had at least 3 inches on the cars. It was probably closer to 4 inches but at that point I was running late and didn't go in to get the yard stick again. It was very pretty. The snow was actually fairly fluffy. There was less by the time I got to Danville and in St. J it looked like only a trace. It looks like I may have finally jackpotted! (If you can call it that)

[j24vt]

2.1" overnight. The bottom 0.6" was frozen slush.

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 2.3” Snow/1.48” L.E.

4/6/2011 6:00 A.M. update: I thought that the snow was coming down pretty heavily last night when I was able to stick my arm out the back door and watch it get coated within seconds. We were sort of under the fire hose for a bit there, and I’ve added another shot that I grabbed from the radar before heading off to bed:

This morning the snowboards had 1.2 inches of snow on them, and a core sample revealed that the snow contained 0.29 inches of liquid. Most surprising was the total liquid that I found in the rain gauge. For the past couple of days when I’ve been measuring the liquid in the gauge, I keep wondering if I’d somehow forgotten to empty it, because the amount of liquid equivalent has been so substantial. I brought out a half inch of hot water this morning to melt what was in the gauge, but the massive frozen conglomerate sort of laughed at that attempt and I had to bring the gauge back inside and add another whole inch of hot water to finally melt everything down. The net result was 1.05 inches of liquid equivalent from the past 24 hours, with roughly an inch and a half of liquid from the event. I was relieved to see that the 0.43 inches of liquid that I measured yesterday morning wasn’t out of line with what other CoCoRaHS observers had received in the area:

It is interesting to note how many of the observers don’t/didn’t measure snowfall though, so unfortunately the snowfall data become rather sparse:

I’ve been curious about today’s liquid as well, but I did see a 0.89-inch reading over the border in Chittenden County, so I guess about an inch of liquid did actually fall. In the new snowfall map below, one can see the way the snowfall tapered off to the west with the warmer temperatures – someone ended up with quite a nice shot of snow off to the east in Caledonia County with 5 inches:

The mountain snowfall last night seemed to be in the northern part of the state; I’ve added some of the Vermont ski resort accumulations in the north to south list below:

Jay Peak: 3”

Smuggler’s Notch: 1”

Stowe: 7”

Bolton Valley: 4”

Mad River Glen: 6”

Sugarbush: 6”

Killington: 2”

Mount Snow: 1”

I have to think the Mt. Mansfield stake will come in well above that 100” mark after last night’s round of snow. We’ll have to see what the data say this afternoon, but winter just keeps rolling on and setting the spring ski season up for some good turns.

Some details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations are below:

New Snow: 1.2 inches

New Liquid: 1.05 inches

Temperature: 29.7 F

Sky: Partly Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 17.0 inches

[powderfreak]

Jay Peak: 3”

Smuggler’s Notch: 1”

Stowe: 7”

Bolton Valley: 4”

Mad River Glen: 6”

Sugarbush: 6”

Killington: 2”

Mount Snow: 1”

I have to think the Mt. Mansfield stake will come in well above that 100” mark after last night’s round of snow. We’ll have to see what the data say this afternoon, but winter just keeps rolling on and setting the spring ski season up for some good turns.

Thanks for the radar image, J.Spin! That fire-hose band of precipitation would explain what we are finding on the mountain this morning. The Mansfield stake has to be over 100" and I'm going up around 1pm to find out. We had 7" (!) on the 3,000ft snow board and about 3.5" on the 1,500ft board for 24 hour totals. The 7" is an incredible surprise as most of the mountain above Crossover trail (1,800ft-ish) has a smooth 6-7" on it.

I honestly have no idea how Smuggs is only reporting a dusting to 1" overnight. I can see their trail system two miles away. I've got pictures I'll try to post tonight, but needless to say this was a true powder day. There's absolutely no one here either... you'd think we were closed. That doesn't help convince management to stay open another week (everything is open and the base depths are incredible). I didn't cross a track my first 3 runs. It was like going heli or cat skiing but with a lift.

The skiing this morning has been off-the-freakin-hook with every trail covered in an even layer of boot deep snow. It was wet and dense snow yesterday afternoon and evening, then the final 3-4" were drier, upslope style snow.

I think there were more employees and management out there skiing today than actual customers... everyone saying, "this is why we work here."

This winter just will not go down without a fight. Incredible.

[MaineJayhawk]

... The Mansfield stake has to be over 100" and I'm going up around 1pm to find out ...

Ray requests a pic of the stake.

[Allenson]

Winter rollin' for now.

Last night's snow on the canoe that one of these days I hope to paddle again:

Took a ski this morning in a sort of secret backcountry area between Lyme & Dorchester, NH:

Underneath looming 3240' Smarts Mountain:

[J.Spin]

Thanks for the radar image, J.Spin! That fire-hose band of precipitation would explain what we are finding on the mountain this morning. The Mansfield stake has to be over 100" and I'm going up around 1pm to find out. We had 7" (!) on the 3,000ft snow board and about 3.5" on the 1,500ft board for 24 hour totals. The 7" is an incredible surprise as most of the mountain above Crossover trail (1,800ft-ish) has a smooth 6-7" on it.

I honestly have no idea how Smuggs is only reporting a dusting to 1" overnight. I can see their trail system two miles away. I've got pictures I'll try to post tonight, but needless to say this was a true powder day. There's absolutely no one here either... you'd think we were closed. That doesn't help convince management to stay open another week (everything is open and the base depths are incredible). I didn't cross a track my first 3 runs. It was like going heli or cat skiing but with a lift.

The skiing this morning has been off-the-freakin-hook with every trail covered in an even layer of boot deep snow. It was wet and dense snow yesterday afternoon and evening, then the final 3-4" were drier, upslope style snow.

I think there were more employees and management out there skiing today than actual customers... everyone saying, "this is why we work here."

This winter just will not go down without a fight. Incredible.

I would certainly have gone out for turns today if I hadn’t had stuff to do at work, this is one of those days that was likely to be very much under the radar. It’s so great that the employees are out there making good use of it, just the way it should be.

Anyway, the stream is back on to some degree, we’ve had steady snow here in Burlington for the past couple of hours. It’s not accumulating down here, but I have to think it could up in the high country. Radar below:

[Allenson]

Yeah, snowin' again here too, lol.

50 by Satrurday and 60 by Sunday?

[klw]

Its snowing lightly here in St. J now. My wife said it has been snowing for a while at the house though it is not sticking on the roads.

[mreaves]

Just had a pretty heavy snow shower pass through Montpelier. Large dendrites, visibility was down to maybe half a mile for a bit. Looks like it was having a hard time even accumulating on the snow banks.

[Allenson]

LOL.