Hitman Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Sugarbush is prone to wind holds on a more southerly trajectory to the westerly flow (tomorrow) while Stowe is prone with more of a northerly trajectory (Tuesday). Just food for thought, we'll see how it plays out. And with snow incoming, Sugarbush should be able to get the 40 trails they closed today back open, or at least a good bit of them. I dont know about sugarbush for tomorrow. Its still 40F here at the base. They'll get those trails open later in the week but not for tomorrow unless theres some help from mother nature tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Absolutely nothing happened last night, except the groomers reported about a half hour of moderate snow on the upper mountain that was just enough to cover the groomer tracks. I'm starting to think this might be a dud as that would be par for the course this winter. Need to wait for the arctic front though and it does look like some lake Ontario moisture wants to work in here this morning... but we'll see how that works out. Given the walking surface here around the base area this morning, its going to be like skiing on a moonscape out there today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpetrics Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Absolutely nothing happened last night, except the groomers reported about a half hour of moderate snow on the upper mountain that was just enough to cover the groomer tracks. I'm starting to think this might be a dud as that would be par for the course this winter. Need to wait for the arctic front though and it does look like some lake Ontario moisture wants to work in here this morning... but we'll see how that works out. Given the walking surface here around the base area this morning, its going to be like skiing on a moonscape out there today. Aarrrrrrgggghhhhh Thanks PF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 Well, finally back <32. Who knew 4-5 days ago that what appeared to be a nice clipper would turn into a 48 hour 33-39 degree rot-fest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Just incredible, incredible sunrise at the mountain. That was the most incredible Alpenglow I've seen yet this season... only lasted about 5 minutes or so but I'll have some pics to throw up this afternoon. The Notch and entire top 1,000ft of the mountain turned bright orange along with the clouds just above the ridgeline. At least that's a plus for this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvysnow79 Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 32F with Mostly Cloudy skies, just a few patches of snow around the yard and about an inch or two of ice on the driveway!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 It’s been partly cloudy for much of the morning, but in the past 5 minutes or so, it’s become much darker as the sky clouded over, and snow is starting to fall. On the radar I can see that some streams of moisture have pushed into the area: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 We are getting smoked right now... this is 2"/hr type stuff so we'll see how long it lasts. Half inch down in the base area and its a total white out. I can't see the Mansfield base lodge from the Mtn Ops building across the parking lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 We are getting smoked right now... this is 2"/hr type stuff so we'll see how long it lasts. Half inch down in the base area and its a total white out. I can't see the Mansfield base lodge from the Mtn Ops building across the parking lot. Sweet AWT, patience grasshopper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Sweet AWT, patience grasshopper. We have to be at like 1/8th of a mile right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 We have to be at like 1/8th of a mile right now. Well that will cover the ice up quickly, how are the winds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Well that will cover the ice up quickly, how are the winds? Dead calm right now at the base. Gusting to 35mph at the top (which isn't all that bad for that elevation). We are in that "middle of the band, dumping snow, dead calm" environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Just about 2" at the base area snow board (1,550ft) through 1:30pm and this board was clean at 11:30am. I'm home now so this photo is about 90 minutes old. It did not snow consistently for those 2 hours though and most of that fell in like 45 minutes as that 30-35dbz band moved through. Patrol said the 3,000ft stake was around 3" for the day around 2pm when I was leaving. Officially it was 1.9" when I dropped the ruler in, but for snow reporting we do nearest inch, so its 2-3" between base and summit so far today. Numbers are above their corresponding line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Just got the call from a ski patroller who checked the stakes/boards at 4pm, and this is what was sent to the NWS in BTV... Stowe Mountain Resort East Side of Mount Mansfield High Road Snow Plot Elevation: 3,044ft Convention: NAD 83 LAT: N44*32.077' LON: W072*48.515' 4pm, checked by Ski Patrol. 24 Hour Snow: 4.5" Snow Depth: 22" Barnes Camp Snow Plot Elevation: 1,543ft Convention: NAD 83 LAT: N44*32.021 LON: W072*47.208 4pm, checked by Ski Patrol. 24 Hour Snow: 2.5" Snow Depth: 7" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 valley back to green. square 1, yet again. squalls never seemed to really come north of Lowell/Irasburg squall's rolling through Hazen's Notch looks like the pond hockey should be good this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Man BTV must think we are smoking crack at the mountain or its just usual ski area BS. The "NEW" snow readings from the Co-Op are atrocious at times and it all depends on whether or not the flakes fall into their measuring can. I remember when we met with Fred L. (in charge of the Co-Op readings) last season and he said that he only measures what falls in the can, even if its obvious there is more snow on the ground than whats in the can. I've got a picture of it on my cell phone that I'll have to share, but once you see it, its not hard to imagine how on a wind-swept ridge flakes have a hard time finding the mouth of the can. Anyway, our 24 hour total was 4.5" almost 1,000ft lower than the summit. Heck we had 2.5" at the base area like 2,500ft below the Co-Op. What I do notice is that the Co-Op never went above freezing and yet had over 1/2" of liquid. If you skied up there today like I did (with posters "adk" and "gpetrics") I think you'd be happy to find a little bit more than 2.5" on the upper mountain, lol. DAILY HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL DATA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BURLINGTON VT 532 PM EST MON JAN 2 2012 STATION PRECIP TEMPERATURE PRESENT SNOW 24 HRS MAX MIN CUR WEATHER NEW TOTAL SWE ...VERMONT... MOUNT MANSFIELD 0.53 32 18 18 CLOUDY 2.5 21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 valley back to green. square 1, yet again. squalls never seemed to really come north of Lowell/Irasburg squall's rolling through Hazen's Notch looks like the pond hockey should be good this week Nice shots but wow, looks a lot different up there than down here. That's really eye opening. I figured most of the eastern side of the spine was in the same boat we were... not a ton of snow but at least solid cover of a rock hard 3-4", now probably 4-6". J.Spin... what's your snow depth at? I'd assume your grass is still covered, too. I think that's your CoCoRAHS report this morning with a 4" depth? That sounds about right for this morning before today's snow. This was 800ft in the village today... I can't believe how localized this winter has been in Vermont. Its been pretty darn crappy overall but I mean we've had snow and snow on the ground for a decent stretch of time now which I just assumed was happening elsewhere around the North Country, too. Its like the Waterbury-Stowe winter or something. There was nice snow on the ground when Ryan/CT Rain was up here a week ago, too. Also this is looking rather promising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Sunrise shot from this morning... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Hey Scott, you do pretty well from being downwind of the Mt Mansfield mtns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Hey Scott, you do pretty well from being downwind of the Mt Mansfield mtns. Its just surprising because Borderwx usually does just as good being downwind of Jay Peak there. Last year I was always behind him in snowpack. He's also up like 400ft higher and this year's been odd in that sometimes its actually been better the lower you go with lots of SW flow WAA and dense cold air just stuck in the lowest few hundred feet. There was that 4 day period earlier in the winter where you could play golf at the course up at the ski area but go sledding at the course down in the village, which is just bizarre in so many ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bch2014 Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Skied Killington, it was horrible boilerplate. Amazing the differences between Stowe and Killington! Luckily I found some decent snow later in the afternoon... And it was only a $49 from Liftopia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Its just surprising because Borderwx usually does just as good being downwind of Jay Peak there. Last year I was always behind him in snowpack. He's also up like 400ft higher and this year's been odd in that sometimes its actually been better the lower you go with lots of SW flow WAA and dense cold air just stuck in the lowest few hundred feet. There was that 4 day period earlier in the winter where you could play golf at the course up at the ski area but go sledding at the course down in the village, which is just bizarre in so many ways. Mtns do some weird stuff. I like the little mesoscale stuff like that..I always find it fascinating...even down here with the ORH hills and east/west slopes of the Berks. I know we bust your chops about the snow stake and what not, but you really seem to enjoy that kind of stuff..which is pretty cool. I would feel the same exact way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Event totals: 0.9” Snow/0.03” L.E. We had 0.3” of snow through noontime today, which actually melted since the temperature was above freezing, and then we picked up another 0.6” with this afternoon’s activity. From the radar it looks like there could be another round approaching: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Skied Killington, it was horrible boilerplate. Amazing the differences between Stowe and Killington! Luckily I found some decent snow later in the afternoon... And it was only a $49 from Liftopia! As I posted in the Ski Thread... don't get me wrong, this morning was awful. Just ask poster "adk" who I was skiing with. I mean we took a run down this trail called Gondolier under the Gondola and I had to bail onto the work road Switchback because it was so atrocious. We just got lucky with that squall line (radar imaged is saved a page back) around noontime which deposited a quick 2-3" in about 2 hours. Night and day difference between the morning and afternoon, like two different ski days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 As I posted in the Ski Thread... don't get me wrong, this morning was awful. Just ask poster "adk" who I was skiing with. I mean we took a run down this trail called Gondolier under the Gondola and I had to bail onto the work road Switchback because it was so atrocious. We just got lucky with that squall line (radar imaged is saved a page back) around noontime which deposited a quick 2-3" in about 2 hours. Night and day difference between the morning and afternoon, like two different ski days. My turns on the ice were so loud I had to jack up my iPod volume lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Mtns do some weird stuff. I like the little mesoscale stuff like that..I always find it fascinating...even down here with the ORH hills and east/west slopes of the Berks. I know we bust your chops about the snow stake and what not, but you really seem to enjoy that kind of stuff..which is pretty cool. I would feel the same exact way. Yeah that's my whole passion for this weather thing... born out of my love for the mountains and how the weather interacts with them. Its so meso-scale its hard to comprehend sometimes. Today's quote was, "Sometimes its snowing, in some places" because it would be snowing on one section of the mountain, with nothing happening on another area... then a snow shower would form in a different area of the mountain while the other one dissipated. Very irregular precipitation patterns before the show got its act together and really socked in. Haha, yeah I know I get busted on sometimes for the snow stake and "who cares about Mansfield" stuff, but honestly, we all post about our backyards and the observations from our backyards. This is my backyard. I honestly haven't left this town since like mid-November and I have skied or worked on the mountain every single day it has been open so far this season. I really do wish that others could share in the winter fun. I didn't grow up here so I don't take it for granted and love every little event that rolls through. 18 years of living in the Hudson Valley floor just south of ALB will make you appreciate any interesting weather at all... and let me tell you the 1980s-90s in the Hudson Valley was like a death wish for a snow-lover. I first joined the NE weather group and then WWBB from the Hudson Valley and have been on these weather boards from many different locations... so again, I never take this for granted which is why I weenie out almost every day up here, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted January 3, 2012 Author Share Posted January 3, 2012 Picked up a pretty 1.5" so far today in two rather heavy squalls. Nice little make-up for yesterday's shenanigans. We never lost all of our meager pack--still had an inch on the ground this morning, so these squalls have had something receptive to fall on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Event totals: 0.9” Snow/0.03” L.E. We had 0.3” of snow through noontime today, which actually melted since the temperature was above freezing, and then we picked up another 0.6” with this afternoon’s activity. From the radar it looks like there could be another round approaching: What's your snow stake at, Jay? It just started pounding graupel here... or snow pellets or whatever these dippin' dot balls are. Sounds like hail against the window when the wind blows. Not going to add up quickly with this dense sandy stuff falling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Its just surprising because Borderwx usually does just as good being downwind of Jay Peak there. Last year I was always behind him in snowpack. He's also up like 400ft higher and this year's been odd in that sometimes its actually been better the lower you go with lots of SW flow WAA and dense cold air just stuck in the lowest few hundred feet. There was that 4 day period earlier in the winter where you could play golf at the course up at the ski area but go sledding at the course down in the village, which is just bizarre in so many ways. I only have an empirical understanding of this valley, but we sit staring SW, those warm winds just rip from lowell to the border and the sun exposure from being such a broad valley just decimating snowpack. I think our valley is a little unique in that its so wide and long by VT standards, greens on one side, lowell range on the other make for a giant warm wind funnel. you can stand on Belvidere in the Spring look right out of the fire tower at a snow covered world, look left and brown dominates the hues. add in the super suck from the green range with any upslope dependent precip(which hasn't been as productive as your neck of the woods) and the winds that shake our house and our snow pack here IMBY stays pretty thin. its comical because I can jump the knoll here to the lake side and they will still have 2-3 inches of some type of glacial snowpack PS. back to snow covered grass, quick inch riding on a heavy squall just ripped through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Nice shots but wow, looks a lot different up there than down here. That's really eye opening. I figured most of the eastern side of the spine was in the same boat we were... not a ton of snow but at least solid cover of a rock hard 3-4", now probably 4-6". J.Spin... what's your snow depth at? I'd assume your grass is still covered, too. I think that's your CoCoRAHS report this morning with a 4" depth? That sounds about right for this morning before today's snow. Wow, I was also amazed at the shots from borderwx – I assumed for the most part the snowpack east of the Greens was similar to what it is in this area. In my casual glances at the CoCoRaHS snow depth map for our area, I generally see snowpack numbers in the 2 to 3-inch range (see map below), and figured we were probably a bit higher since we’ve done well with upslope snowfall right along the spine. That system from the 27th & 28th did deposit 1.24 inches of liquid equivalent in the snowpack here, most of it in frozen form, so what’s on the ground is pretty substantial. Yeah PF, that 4.0-inch snowpack depth along the Chittenden County/Washington County border is mine (see map below). With the marginal temperatures today, the 0.9 inches of fluff with partial melting has built up to a bit less than ½ inch of new coating on the snowpack, so I may still be reporting the same 4.0 inches tomorrow unless tonight’s activity bumps it up. We do have that current round of snow coming through though, with another 0.3 inches on the board (lots of it graupel) and continued snowfall. With temperatures now below freezing, we’ll certainly keep what comes down if we get more activity tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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