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NNE Heart of Winter


Allenson

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Wow that sunset pic is one of the best shots I've ever seen posted on here, JSpin.

And yes the powder is almost getting better with age. It seems to have lost the wind skim coat on top and its now just sparkling fluff. Loving the low angle hardwood woods right now over near the Mansfield triple. Just great noodle turns through the trees in boot deep fluff.

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Not quite as cold here as yesterday, but still about -12 or so. Seemed just as clear and calm, and was -4 last eve at 9, 2F colder than the night before, so I expected to be in the 15-20 below range again. Had 7/-17 yest, by about 10F the coldest daily mean this season. About time, and I'm still about +2.4 for the month.

Looks like a couple inches of frozen stuff tomorrow/Wed, maybe a dusting late week. Hope next week's torch is less than advertised.

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We were at mt Ellen yesterday morning. It was a bit on the chilly side. Minus 18 at the summit. First run was a groomer and it was just too cold to go at any speed. So we hopped into the woods and warmed ourselves working it in there. Once I got the juices going it was ok, but definitely an extra layer day. No crowds.

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Some photos from today... just a spectacular day in NNE.

The Mansfield ridgeline connects where I'm standing with the far end on the other side (the "Chin")... standing high above the rest its easy to see how this wall produces so much orographic snow.

Looking north through the Notch with Jay Peak on the horizon right of center.

Mount Mansfield's Chin... my snow board measuring spot is located in the bottom right hand corner of this photo at 3,000ft, which is 1,300ft lower than the summit.

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-18F here last night. Back at LSC for the Spring semester. Snow depth of 5" of campus at 1,100ft. Looks like a period of light snow and sleet (possibly 1-2") then a period of freezing rain and over to plain rain by 0z-6z Wednesday before temps crash back down. Keeping an eye on the Thursday clipper and Saturday storm. Looks like Thursday will be high ratio snows (maybe 1-3" plus orographic stuff) then Saturday depends on the amplitude of the shortwave.

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Event totals: 0.2” Snow/0.01” L.E.

We had a little snow overnight at some point, but it was just cloudy when I was taking my observations this morning.

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

New Snow: 0.2 inches

New Liquid: 0.01 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 20.0

Snow Density: 5.0% H2O

Temperature: ~27 F

Sky: Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 9.5 inches

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that sunset pic is friggin awesome J. thanks for sharing that one.
Wow that sunset pic is one of the best shots I've ever seen posted on here, JSpin.

And yes the powder is almost getting better with age. It seems to have lost the wind skim coat on top and its now just sparkling fluff. Loving the low angle hardwood woods right now over near the Mansfield triple. Just great noodle turns through the trees in boot deep fluff.

Thanks for the comments on the photo guys; the slopes of Bolton Valley are great for those westward views. I was near the top of my ascent when I noticed that the sun was just about to start slipping behind the horizon, so I knew I’d better get a shot before it was gone.

We were out at Stowe yesterday for turns, and as PF mentioned in the ski thread, those early morning lows were not all that inspiring for an early start. Knowing the forecast for great temperatures in the afternoon, we were probably like many folks; we didn’t start until late morning and focused on the second half of the day. There were actually some pretty amazing on piste conditions on the hill – I’m usually less than impressed with the conditions on the snowmaking trails because of how the snow turns to ice with skier traffic, but conditions on many of those trails were head and shoulders above what I’ve seen on them in quite a while. For whatever reason, perhaps the good combination of dense snow/mix followed by fluff, there was a layer of natural snow that really had staying power to mask the manmade stuff underneath - runs like Centerline and Hayride come to mind (I think they’ve both got snowmaking). The steepest pitches still got down to that slick stuff, but wow, that was a good storm for producing some packed powder conditions. Coverage was quite impressive as well – at one point my wife said she couldn’t believe that we were in the midst of a low snowfall season. One thing that impressed me in that regard was the fact that the top section of Waterfall was open – with plenty of coverage and great packed powder. I’m not sure if it’s just my timing, but that area never seems to be open, so that says something about the coverage and snow quality. The conditions were great just about everywhere we ventured on natural snow terrain, although that’s usually par for the course as long as the weather hasn’t been too warm. I added one image below from when I was parking the car – each time I park over at Spruce Peak in a different location it seems as though there’s another inspiring angle of the Stowe Mountain Lodge with Mt. Mansfield towering above. It was great having ski conditions as good as the scenery:

16JAN12A.jpg

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Just did my snow survey at 3,000ft...

First off, 0.6" is the new snow from this morning up on that snow board.

Snow depth has settled to 33".

Liquid in that snowpack is 6.5", which is 1.25" above what we were exactly 7 days ago. That 1.25" of liquid brought us 19.5" of snowfall this week. Given that a good bulk of that snowfall occurred in 72 hours and half of that was very fluffy upslope snow, I think the numbers make sense. I felt comfortable with that data.

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Just did my snow survey at 3,000ft...

First off, 0.6" is the new snow from this morning up on that snow board.

Snow depth has settled to 33".

Liquid in that snowpack is 6.5", which is 1.25" above what we were exactly 7 days ago. That 1.25" of liquid brought us 19.5" of snowfall this week. Given that a good bulk of that snowfall occurred in 72 hours and half of that was very fluffy upslope snow, I think the numbers make sense. I felt comfortable with that data.

Rooting around would concur that you have about 3 feet of base snow in wind proteced areas. Water wise seems about right given what we've seen fall from the sky.

Very interested to see what this little wave does over on Mansfield. Models keep Mansfield above freezing from the afternoon until 9z tomorrow am.

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Rooting around would concur that you have about 3 feet of base snow in wind proteced areas. Water wise seems about right given what we've seen fall from the sky.

Very interested to see what this little wave does over on Mansfield. Models keep Mansfield above freezing from the afternoon until 9z tomorrow am.

I'm curious too... when that burst of precipitation gets in here, it'll be very close. I think we may see the bulk of that fall as sleet or literally a mix of everything. RUC and models today have been lifting the H85 freezing line just north of Mansfield but then when that 2-3 hour shot of precip moves in, there's a kink at H85 as it dynamically cools back to near or even just below freezing for a period at this latitude. I've seen this happen before where I'm expecting rain just by a quick glance at the 3-6 hour snapshots, but it ends up being mostly frozen or freezing then warms up to drizzle right as precip ends.

We could be sleeting at the base and raining at the summit though. I've seen that one before, too, as this east side pocket between here, the Notch, and Sterling Ridge just holds a nice 2,000ft thick layer of cold that changes RN/ZR at 4K feet to sleet down at 1,500-2,500ft.

I highly doubt our weather station at the Liftline booster system goes above freezing at 2,500ft tucked in on the east side of the ridge. Right now that is the coldest part of the mountain. Its 26F at 4,000ft...24F at the 2,500ft snowmaking booster...and 29F at 1,500ft.

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VERY dangerous ice situation on NH big lakes today. Before this weekends cold wave most of the big lakes where still open except for sheltered harbors and bays. There the ice is thick enough to walk on. Wind kept the big lakes mostly ice free till Sunday night when calm conditions allowed large areas of the big lakes to freeze over thinly. I was around Newfound and Winnepeaskee yesterday and saw vast amounts ofvery thin ice that had just formed. The thicker snowcovered ice and thin ice lines were clearly visable. Last nights 1" snow covered everything up so today it looks like the lakes are well frozen but they are not. Anyone out on the ice will not know where the thin ice begins. I fear there may be some bad situations the next several days with people not realizing this. Perhaps Wednesday and Thursdays cold will thicken the new ice some but right now watch out!

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