powderfreak Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 We just closed one of our slow, fixed grip double chairs due to cold... basically to save people from their own stupidity, when there is a high speed lift right next to it. It is brutal up there. I took two runs and that was enough for the day. VTZ001>003-005-006-016-017-122000- GRAND ISLE-WESTERN FRANKLIN-ORLEANS-WESTERN CHITTENDEN-LAMOILLE- EASTERN FRANKLIN-EASTERN CHITTENDEN- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...ALBURGH...SOUTH HERO...ST. ALBANS... NEWPORT...BURLINGTON...JOHNSON...STOWE...ENOSBURG FALLS... RICHFORD...UNDERHILL 942 AM EST SUN FEB 12 2012 ...SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT... AT 930 AM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS INDICATED NUMEROUS SNOW SHOWERS DEVELOPING ACROSS THE NORTHERN CHAMPLAIN VALLEY OF VERMONT AND THE WESTERN SLOPES OF THE NORTHERN GREEN MOUNTAINS. THIS ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH MID AFTERNOON BEFORE ABATING LATER TODAY...THOUGH DUE TO THE FINE NATURE OF THE SNOW ACCUMULATIONS SHOULD GENERALLY BE LESS THAN AN INCH. MORE IMPORTANTLY...THE COMBINATION OF STEADY TEMPERATURES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS ABOVE ZERO AND BLUSTERY NORTHWEST WINDS OF 5 TO 15 MPH WILL CREATE LOW WIND CHILLS IN THE -5 TO -15 DEGREE RANGE TODAY. PERSONS PLANNING OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES TODAY SHOULD DRESS ACCORDINGLY AND LIMIT LONGER PERIODS OF OUTDOOR EXPOSURE IF POSSIBLE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 More than tha here, with steady ultralite stuff 9-11 AM, but flakes were sub-millimeter and added up to "T". Other than the bit of ZR on the 1st, Feb has been dry; had 8 days without even a trace before yesterday. Down near zero this morning. Should see some snow late week this week, I find it hard to believe we go all of Feb just recording trace amounts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Here comes the arctic chill... 0F and breezy at 1,500ft. Walking across the parking lot to the office at 5:15am was quite chilly.But I can't wait to get a chairlift this morning... clocking near 40mph gusts with -11F at the summit. Wind chill has already hit -40F this morning and we are supposed to keep falling today. Keep those mountain updates coming PF, they’re much appreciated. Along with the NWS forecast, and on-the-snow comments from one of the Morrisville program coaches, your observations have been helpful in making decisions for our Stowe ski program. It actually ended up not being a tough call today; E and her fellow director cancelled due to the combination temperatures and wind. We’re not hearing complaints from any parents, especially since conditions aren’t all that inspiring by local standards anyway. It’s not that surfaces are all that bad, but things are just sort of “beaten down” (a phrase a friend used yesterday at Bolton that seems nicely descriptive) and we need a freshening. We’re getting a taste of what happens when you don’t get snow for a week. It seemed like the break from all the mixed precipitation in the storm cycles was going to be nice change of pace, but if it comes at the price of losing storms altogether, that makes the switch much less appealing. It sounds like things may be moving back in that other direction anyway. Those were some nice shots you posted in the ski thread; powder is out there to be found (I added a couple shots from yesterday in the ski thread), it’s just taking a little more work than usual. We had a good time with the boys yesterday up on the hill with temperatures in the 20s F, but with the big drop in temperatures and the snow quality not being off the hook, I’m happier catching up on stuff indoors today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Poor ice fisherman... what an absolutely dreadful day to be out there. A brutal 11.6 degrees and if my wind is gusting to 36, it's probably 45+ out on the wider parts of the lake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctsnowstorm628 Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Just thinking about being outside makes me hurt lol 3.1F with windchills near -10F. Brutal. Glad I hit the slopes Friday and Saturday this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Keep those mountain updates coming PF, they’re much appreciated. Along with the NWS forecast, and on-the-snow comments from one of the Morrisville program coaches, your observations have been helpful in making decisions for our Stowe ski program. It actually ended up not being a tough call today; E and her fellow director cancelled due to the combination temperatures and wind. We’re not hearing complaints from any parents, especially since conditions aren’t all that inspiring by local standards anyway. It’s not that surfaces are all that bad, but things are just sort of “beaten down” (a phrase a friend used yesterday at Bolton that seems nicely descriptive) and we need a freshening. We’re getting a taste of what happens when you don’t get snow for a week. It seemed like the break from all the mixed precipitation in the storm cycles was going to be nice change of pace, but if it comes at the price of losing storms altogether, that makes the switch much less appealing. It sounds like things may be moving back in that other direction anyway. Those were some nice shots you posted in the ski thread; powder is out there to be found (I added a couple shots from yesterday in the ski thread), it’s just taking a little more work than usual. We had a good time with the boys yesterday up on the hill with temperatures in the 20s F, but with the big drop in temperatures and the snow quality not being off the hook, I’m happier catching up on stuff indoors today. That's a good way to think about it... and actually I thought surface conditions were pretty bad today, much worse than previous days. It was just too cold. It will get much better once the temp gets up near 20F and loosens up the snow. As our patrol director said, its not that it was icy, its just very hard snow. The groomers were complaining this morning that the snow just didn't want to move and it was very difficult to get it to groom out properly. Usually you can get the top 1" or so of the corduroy to be soft and fluffier than the under surface, but with high winds and sub-zero temperatures, you are left with just groomer marks in very firm snow. You also needed a special wax to even get your skis to move properly on the stuff as the crystals were so cold. Tomorrow afternoon will be worlds better when the temp gets up to 15-20F and you can actually move it around. And I caught up on a lot of office work, spreadsheets, weather/snowfall data, and answering customer complaint emails. I think all the school programs except for Hardwick canceled today, which was the smart choice. When we are closing lifts like the Lookout Double for safety reasons, its probably not worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Oh my god... there are actually flakes coming out of the sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 5.8F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Snowing decently... half inch or so down. Very tiny flakes though so that's going to hurt us. The only way we were getting to BTV's 2-4" was with good snow growth. I was emailing with the forecaster on duty yesterday and her main concern was vertical growth of the clouds and crystal type. We are getting plates right now but they are small and the wind is gusting near 50mph so they are just shattering into pixie dust. The wind is ripping out there... every couple of minutes the doors to Mountain Ops creak and moan like they want to get sucked outside and ripped off. There have been low level lapse rates of 6F to almost 7F per 1,000ft this morning here and that summit wind is having no problem mixing down to the base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Event totals: 0.8” Snow/0.02” L.E. We picked up a couple tenths of an inch of snow with the arctic cold front that moved into the area Friday and Saturday, but for the rest of the weekend all we saw was diamond dust and often clear skies. With the warm front approaching this morning though, the snow was really coming down; I would actually describe the intensity as moderate, and with some flakes over 1 cm in diameter it was accumulating efficiently. There will definitely be more accumulation to report later today, because the vigorous snowfall continued as I was leaving the house, and the radar still shows some moisture upstream of the area: Even here in Burlington it’s been snowing. It’s coming down at a decent clip, but the flakes aren’t as large and overall it’s not up to the level of intensity of what was going on in the mountains. There’s less than ½“ of new snow down on the ground here, but having things whitened in Burlington is a notable change. Some details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations are below: New Snow: 0.8 inches New Liquid: 0.02 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 40.0 Snow Density: 2.5% H2O Temperature: 16.9 F Sky: Moderate Snow (3-12 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 9.0 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Event totals: 0.8” Snow/0.02” L.E. We picked up a couple tenths of an inch of snow with the arctic cold front that moved into the area Friday and Saturday, but for the rest of the weekend all we saw was diamond dust and often clear skies. With the warm front approaching this morning though, the snow was really coming down; I would actually describe the intensity as moderate, and with some flakes over 1 cm in diameter it was accumulating efficiently. There will definitely be more accumulation to report later today, because the vigorous snowfall continued as I was leaving the house, and the radar still shows some moisture upstream of the area: Nice, J.Spin. Only about a half inch on this side of the Spine but its still snowing. Couple folks driving in early have said it was a bit heavier between Richmond and Waterbury than on this side of the mountains. This will likely be a Bolton Valley special. With that said, winds are ripping here at Mansfield so measuring is borderline impossible. I mean this snow is literally just moving horizontally past my window and you can see as the wind rips out of the Notch these HUGE plumes of snow get picked up from the woods, parking lots, buildings, etc and end up causing momentary whiteouts. The wind is taking snow from the surface and blowing it like 300 feet in the air, lol. Its like watching a dust or sand storm blow in. And your ratios look to be much, much higher than what I would guess here. We may very well have the same amount of liquid, if not more, but less snow here at the mountain. The wind is shattering this stuff into pixie dust. No loft at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Getting some clear sky flurries at CON this morning causing a nice sun pillar. I'm not sure if I'd classify it as diamond dust or just some flurries being squeezed out from moisture flux from the river, but it's cool nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snow Bow Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Getting some clear sky flurries at CON this morning causing a nice sun pillar. I'm not sure if I'd classify it as diamond dust or just some flurries being squeezed out from moisture flux from the river, but it's cool nonetheless. Same thing here at home, very cool indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 It's been snowing here since last night. The flakes are about as small as we ever see. It only amounted to 0.1" but it's sure nice to see flakes falling from the sky and a wee fresh dusting. Surely it kept us from bottoming out temperature wise. Stayed above zero all night, barely. My first clue was last night I looked at the thermometer and we were down to 2F. 45 minutes or so later, I looked again and it was about 5F. Hmmm, I said, what's going on? I went out for a load of firewood and found light snow falling just the slightest of coatings on thing. It kept up through the night and measureable we have this morn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snow Bow Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 It's been snowing here since last night. The flakes are about as small as we ever see. It only amounted to 0.1" but it's sure nice to see flakes falling from the sky and a wee fresh dusting. Surely it kept us from bottoming out temperature wise. Stayed above zero all night, barely. My first clue was last night I looked at the thermometer and we were down to 2F. 45 minutes or so later, I looked again and it was about 5F. Hmmm, I said, what's going on? I went out for a load of firewood and found light snow falling just the slightest of coatings on thing. It kept up through the night and measureable we have this morn. No accumulation down here. Just sunny skies and those tiny little flakes like you were saying too. Was noticing the temperature ups and downs last night also and went out around 11:30 to grab a firewood load as well. But the reason here for the temp going up was the lake effect cloud debris. I have an uncle who lives not to far out of Syracuse who was seeing thundersnow last night from the bands that were coming off Ontario with @ 3 inches in about 90 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Very interesting how we've seen a redevelopment of better snows over the mountain here where RT 108 kisses the zig-zag county border...and the wind has gone pretty much calm inside this snow band. You can see this band best on the 2.4 degree scan of the radar...as it was more down in the I-89 corrdor where it cuts through the spine (county lines) in J.Spin's area and now seems to be shifting north a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 1" now. I'm comfortable enough to say this is moderate snow now. Visibility is quite low at times, but when the wind lets up you can still see some homes about a half mile away. Looks like down in town the tree branches and stuff are starting to whiten up... can't see the hills in this webcam so probably a steady light snow. Its sad this is the most exciting thing to happen in the last like 10 days. Alright... 8am, time to go skiing and check some snow stakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Correction--0.2" Boom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Legit -SN now without a cloud in the sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Legit -SN now without a cloud in the sky. That's pretty cool. Just enough moisture and lift to form some ice crystals I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 High of 11 yest afternoon, with wind gusts to 30. 2nd coldest afternoon this winter - 1/15 (another Sunday) high was 7. Pretty lame for winter's best, as many years I see highs at or below zero. Temp dropped to zero by 6 PM, then locked in place (zero to -2) thru 6 AM, before hopping up to 5 by 6:30 as clouds rolled in. Since my avg minimum for 2/13 is 4F, this "arctic blast" was somewhat underwhelming. GYX predicts a high of 19 today for MBY; I think mid 20s more likely. If things hold to form, Friday's event will either whiff or rain. (Would love to be wrong...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Wow... was not expecting that much snow up in the 3,000-4,000ft elevation band. We have around an inch at 1,500ft, however on the 3,000ft snowboard there was 2.9" of fluff and it continues to snow steadily. There was a definite line at like 2,500ft where you go from like an inch to like... wow, the snow is now over the tips of my skis and billowing all over the place. Had more like 3-3.5" up at 3,600ft top of the lifts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 That's pretty cool. Just enough moisture and lift to form some ice crystals I guess. Yeah. We had this a few weeks ago in the morning too. It's been going on for 2 hours now. I thought it was something mesoscale at first, but you must be right with the WAA giving just enough lift to squeeze out flakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctsnowstorm628 Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Solid coating. SN- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Yeah. We had this a few weeks ago in the morning too. It's been going on for 2 hours now. I thought it was something mesoscale at first, but you must be right with the WAA giving just enough lift to squeeze out flakes. A friend of mine down here in Dracut said the same thing, so it seems more widespread. Pretty neat stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klw Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 We had a fresh .25 when I left about 7:45. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j24vt Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 1.1" this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adk Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 After skiing for 10 days in the middle of Europe's coldest stretch in the last 50 years I'm reallly enjoying the mild temps and sun in downtown BTV. Mid 30s or so with sun and maybe 5-10 off the lake. Not tooo shabby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 1.1" this morning. Nice... yeah looks like around an inch here at home. Same inch at the base but a solid 3" at the 3,000ft snow board. It all fell pretty quickly between like 5am-9am. Some areas up in that 3,500ft+ range probably had closer to 4". Skiing was great with several inches on top of the groomed surface. Finally got some fresh tracks through the glades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Odd (to me, anyway) temp contrast across Maine at 3 PM, with SFM at 37 and FVE at 2, both with gusty west winds. (FVE chill factor -21.) Usually that large a temp spread comes with radically different wind directions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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