powderfreak Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Winds are slowly starting to turn around in the lowest few thousand feet, but mid levels are still out of the SW and you can tell there's a bit more moisture advecting this way from the Great Lakes region.... hopefully that overrunning moisture coupled with some low level NW upslope flow will be able to squeeze out additional accums overnight across the North Country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 It will be interesting to see if the hi-res models are correct for tonight on the Maine coast. The HRRR continues to advertise banded snow near or just north of Portland through early morning once this trough sags south. I know it likes to go overboard with the snowfall amounts, but it's showing pixels of 4-6" near Sebago Lake. To some extent the NAM also tries to really ramp up the moisture convergence in the low levels near the coast tonight. Interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 It will be interesting to see if the hi-res models are correct for tonight on the Maine coast. The HRRR continues to advertise banded snow near or just north of Portland through early morning once this trough sags south. I know it likes to go overboard with the snowfall amounts, but it's showing pixels of 4-6" near Sebago Lake. To some extent the NAM also tries to really ramp up the moisture convergence in the low levels near the coast tonight. Nice area of snow showers over the western Maine mountains that doesn't appear to be going anywhere quickly... hopefully for our Maine posters this continues to sag/collapse slowly towards the coast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Nice area of snow showers over the western Maine mountains that doesn't appear to be going anywhere quickly... hopefully for our Maine posters this continues to sag/collapse slowly towards the coast. Snowmobile thru those all day today up in the Rangeley area, Was getting pelted with sleet at times and snow squalls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanStWx Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Nice area of snow showers over the western Maine mountains that doesn't appear to be going anywhere quickly... hopefully for our Maine posters this continues to sag/collapse slowly towards the coast. If the hi-res models are to be believed, this area of precip should continue to become more disorganized in the next couple of hours. Then it redevelops along the coast as the upper trough nears tonight. Subtle support aloft near the Maine Seacoast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanStWx Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Snowmobile thru those all day today up in the Rangeley area, Was getting pelted with sleet at times and snow squalls Figured as much, seeing 40-45 dBZ returns every once and a while. Considering the convective nature of the showers, that was probably some graupel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Figured as much, seeing 40-45 dBZ returns every once and a while. Considering the convective nature of the showers, that was probably some graupel. Pretty large aggregates, It was tough keeping the face shield clear at times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 That looks like a nice little snow event taking shape in the mtns of ME. NAm tried to bring that ese so we'll see. Cool stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klw Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Looks like we have had another inch or so this evening but I haven't gone out to measure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j24vt Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 1.3" today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OKpowdah Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Just looked out the window and saw we have a solid coating on everyone. Small flakes falling right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 -SN here looks like some of those snow showers are starting to drop SE out of the mtns over this area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 +SN, 31.8F 33dbz squall moving thru here right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 +SN, 31.8F 33dbz squall moving thru here right now Nice, winter lives somewhere, what's that 5 days in a row with some sort of snow. Helluva way to run Sams and Nates torch start to March. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Nice, winter lives somewhere, what's that 5 days in a row with some sort of snow. Helluva way to run Sams and Nates torch start to March. Yeah Steve, We may get a quick inch or two out of this, I was riding in and out of these all day today up by SR, Mtn was busy today.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weatherMA Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yeah Steve, We may get a quick inch or two out of this, I was riding in and out of these all day today up by SR, Mtn was busy today.. Saw some riders just SE of Rutland, VT today. Funny thing is....they must have been desperate as the snow pack was like 4-5" with some bare spots where they were riding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Saw some riders just SE of Rutland, VT today. Funny thing is....they must have been desperate as the snow pack was like 4-5" with some bare spots where they were riding That's not good, That is a good way to break the sled plus it can cause bodily injury hitting stumps, rocks pipes, etc, etc because of the lack of snow, Objects that are usually covered up by now are exposed, Did not have that problem up here as there was at least a 4' base off the trail where we rode in NW part of the state here, I got 140 miles of seat time today but am feeling it tonight.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Event totals: 2.0” Snow/0.05” L.E. We had a bit of snow in the air this morning around the house, but nothing that had accumulated before we headed off to Stowe in the late morning period. Snow was falling lightly in the valleys to the east of the Greens while we drove to the mountain, and off to the west, the mountains themselves were hidden behind a veil of more intense snowfall. As we approached Mt. Mansfield the snowfall grew steadier and heavier, and while it would still be considered light in intensity, it was accumulating even at the base elevations (~1,500) when we arrived at the resort. As is often the case, the snow was heaviest over by the Chin: Around midday we found new accumulations of roughly 2 inches of snow on Spruce Peak at ~2,500’, but with the warming yesterday there was a melt/sun crust below the new snow that made the off piste skiing not nearly as blissful as what it had been last week. We headed over to Mt. Mansfield, and were planning to bring the kids on a trip to the Kitchen Wall, but weren’t going to do that unless the snow quality was there. It turns out that high on the mountain, it must not have gotten above freezing, or certainly not enough that it mattered, because up around 3,500’ there were no signs of crust and the powder was fantastic. There were some pretty cool snow formations out there: There was definitely an elevation-dependent gradient in terms of where temperatures had warmed enough to affect the snow on Mansfield, but basically everything on the upper half of the mountain was very much like it’s been all week, especially with all the additional snow falling. On the lower half of the mountain the melt layer from yesterday became more and more pronounced, so it made off piste skiing more difficult in the very lowest elevations, but conditions down there were still very nice on piste. Near the end of the afternoon we took a run down Lookout; the snow was starting to come on stronger, and the size of the flakes was increasing: Some of the heaviest snowfall of the day was coming down as we were leaving, and it was hard to tell because there was no melt layer up there to assess the new snow on top of the old, but there had to be at least 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow up top by that point. I’m sure Powderfreak will have the information tomorrow. The snow gradually dropped off in intensity as we headed toward Stowe Village, and was fairly minimal through Waterbury Center and Colbyville, but as we headed down the hill from Colbyville into Waterbury, it began to pick up and I suspected it was even more intense at the house. We looked down the Winooski Valley and saw that indeed there was an impressive wall of white in that direction, and it was snowing moderately with 1.4 inches on the snowboard as of 5:00 P.M. There’s been on and off snow tonight that has dropped an additional 0.6 inches on the board as of 11:00 P.M. Data from tonight’s Waterbury observations are below: 5:00 P.M. New Snow: 1.4 inches New Liquid: 0.04 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 35.0 Snow Density: 2.9% H2O Temperature: 32.2 F Sky: Moderate Snow (5-25 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 11.0 inches 11:00 P.M. New Snow: 0.6 inches New Liquid: 0.01 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 60.0 Snow Density: 1.7% H2O Temperature: 18.7 F Sky: Light Snow (1-3 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 11.0 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Nice report, J.Spin. Wow you thought there had to be 3-4" by the end of the day. Sweet. I usually leave by around 1-2pm and didn't get around to checking the snow board at 3,000ft in the afternoon. I'm now looking forward to seeing what's on there for a 24 hour total later this morning for the 9am snow update. A buddy told me he thought 1-2" was a low ball guess at 4pm but if I'm doing educated guesses, I like it to be conservative. I should have known there was probably more seeing as the Co-Op reported 2" of new... so 3-4" sounds about right based on that, haha. In terms of conditions, I thought things were slope aspect and elevation dependent on the ungroomed stuff... classic spring-time where Spruce is a little firmer after a warm day than the upper elevations of Mansfield facing east. This is what I had on yesterday's report and will likely leave up this morning until I can get out there and see what's going on with the new snowfall and if its changed things at all. "Surface conditions are a mix of loose granular & packed powder on machine groomed runs (trending more towards packed powder as the snow falls), and ungroomed terrain is a bit more variable depending on elevation and slope aspect." Doesn't look like anything else fell overnight here in town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ended up with 2.8" of snow overnight from those persistent snow showers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 We were missed by the heavier snow showers that some got but we still had one nice but brief downpour of flakes. Picked up a quick half-inch last evening. Stat-padding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Event totals: 2.4” Snow/0.08” L.E. An additional 0.4” of snow fell overnight since 11:00 P.M., and with the density jumping way up to 7.5% H2O, I suspect that it either saw some settling and/or the flakes dropped way off in size. It is notably colder out there now compared to what it was yesterday evening. Below I added the north to south list of 24-hour snow accumulations reported so far by the Vermont ski areas: Jay Peak: 2” Burke: 6” Smuggler’s Notch: 2” Stowe: 3” Bolton Valley: 4” Mad River Glen: 5” Sugarbush: 5” Pico: 4” Killington: 4” Okemo: 6” Stratton: 1” Mount Snow: 0” Burke says that they did well with a half foot yesterday after the lifts closed, so there should be some nice turns out there in the NEK today. Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations are below: New Snow: 0.4 inches New Liquid: 0.03 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 13.3 Snow Density: 7.5% H2O Temperature: 10.0 F Sky: Flurries (1 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 10.5 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbiesnow Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ended up with 1.7 inches of fluff,. a wonderful coating ontop of the fresh groomed trails for me today.. temps dropped to 11 this morning. Ive got diamond dust still coming down now, I am gonna cherish the last 2 days of mid winter conditions, then the depression mode will kick in as I watch my snowpak melt weds and thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 well, -1F this AM with wind, maybe only 1 or 2 of those left for the winter? we'll see. solid foot of snowpack in the yard. completely random: but we were at 3500' yesterday skiing, well, route finding mostly, came across fresh moose sign, like steaming pile fresh, couldn't believe he'd be up that high, post holes to no bottom, only his ass end keeping him afloat, guess I didn't realize they would be that high in such deep snowpack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 well, -1F this AM with wind, maybe only 1 or 2 of those left for the winter? we'll see. solid foot of snowpack in the yard. completely random: but we were at 3500' yesterday skiing, well, route finding mostly, came across fresh moose sign, like steaming pile fresh, couldn't believe he'd be up that high, post holes to no bottom, only his ass end keeping him afloat, guess I didn't realize they would be that high in such deep snowpack. Funny sh it. good laugh this AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Just checked the snow board at 3,000ft... 24 hour total (9am-9am) is 3.9", so that makes 2-4" last 24 hours. Really doesn't feel like it though... skis like 1-2" due to the very cold temps and wind which has packed it down and blown it all over the place. Noticed some hard slabby areas inbetween moguls but that's just sort of par for the course up here. I showed a buddy the snow measuring area and he was also surprised to find that much snow but it just goes to show how a good measuring location (flat, 30-40 foot opening in the woods surrounded by dense evergreens) can block the wind and allow a truly undisturbed sample of snowfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 well, -1F this AM with wind, maybe only 1 or 2 of those left for the winter? we'll see. solid foot of snowpack in the yard. completely random: but we were at 3500' yesterday skiing, well, route finding mostly, came across fresh moose sign, like steaming pile fresh, couldn't believe he'd be up that high, post holes to no bottom, only his ass end keeping him afloat, guess I didn't realize they would be that high in such deep snowpack. That moose that was wandering around Mansfield east for a while was spotted as high as 3,000-3,500ft, too... but that was before the last storm cycle that really put the snowpack up into the "deep" category. Several years back a moose was on the Mansfield ridgeline (4,000ft) in mid-winter, and must have gotten disoriented in a whiteout, and ended up falling off a several hundred foot cliff in an area known as the Kitchen Wall. He landed on his back and died, and then for the rest of the winter skiers were skiing past the thing with all four legs sticking straight up out of the snowpack. I believe the forest service removed him in the spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 completely random: but we were at 3500' yesterday skiing, well, route finding mostly, came across fresh moose sign, like steaming pile fresh, couldn't believe he'd be up that high, post holes to no bottom, only his ass end keeping him afloat, guess I didn't realize they would be that high in such deep snowpack. Moose can be weird that way. Some years ago we found a heavily used mooseyard at about 3,000' atop Black Mt, one of the lesser peaks in the Mahoosucs. The sapling fir stand had the snow, probably over 4' of it, nearly packed out by the critters. Went to bed last night with -SN and a couple tenths, woke up to 2.4" of 22:1 fluff. I hadn't seen a forecast since yesterday morning, when all it had was 30% chance of snowshowers, so it was a nice surprise. Snowpack at 19" this morning, matching its highest of the season. Given the forecasts, I see almost no chance of seeing 20"+ this year (unless Dec is very nice.) 14-yr median for deepest snow depth IMBY is 26". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctsnowstorm628 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Well, I see Burke came in with 6" from last night! Crazy. We ended with 2.6" here at LSC, and right now it's 9.1F and with the March sun, the snow is already melting off the roofs/pavement/etc. Latest guidance implies low 60s for the Champlain Valley, upper 40s-low 50s for mountain summits, and low to mid 50s for the NEK on Thursday of this coming week. We'll see how guidance handles this as it approaches, but with a cutoff low in the SW US, it's pretty tough to keep the warmth from surging in from the southwest. This really is no surprise though, so get your laps in today and tomorrow, because after that, here comes spring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaineJayhawk Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ended up with 2.8" of snow overnight from those persistent snow showers Went to bed last night with -SN and a couple tenths, woke up to 2.4" of 22:1 fluff. I hadn't seen a forecast since yesterday morning, when all it had was 30% chance of snowshowers, so it was a nice surprise. Snowpack at 19" this morning, matching its highest of the season. Given the forecasts, I see almost no chance of seeing 20"+ this year (unless Dec is very nice.) 14-yr median for deepest snow depth IMBY is 26". I got nothing and have to like it. > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.