NNE Spring 2013 Thread

[powderfreak]

At least the landscape is white for one more day looking out the sliding glass door here in Stowe Village (and likely most of interior VT).

 

 

 

And a web cam grab from the ski resort...

 

[j24vt]

_{1.8" of ice grains (I can't really call it snow) today.  Bottom 0.3" had to be scraped off the board}

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 1.4” Snow/0.60” L.E.

 

It’s just cloudy here at the moment, although there has been some showery sleet and sprinkles around.

 

Details from the 5:00 P.M. Waterbury observations are below:

 

New Snow: 1.2 inches (sleet)

New Liquid: 0.53 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 2.3

Snow Density: 44.2% H2O

Temperature: 32.9 F

Sky: Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 1.5 inches

 

 

[J.Spin]

The next rounds of precipitation are starting to come through the area now; the most recent one here has featured some pretty heavy sleet with a couple of additional tenths of an inch down already:

 

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 1.9” Snow/0.79” L.E.

 

Last night’s rounds of precipitation brought another half inch of accumulation and close to two tenths of an inch of liquid here at our location.  The only type of precipitation I saw was sleet, and the snow density (below) is right in that 30+% H2O range, suggesting sleet is the bulk of what’s in the cores.  If we picked up close to eight tenths of an inch of liquid equivalent down here though, the mountains could easily be at an inch plus, and that’s getting toward a solid resurfacing of the slopes.  The quality of the skiing will probably depend on just how the temperature fluctuations played out at elevation, but in any event it’s another good contribution to the snowpack.  The north to south listing of available snowfall totals from the Vermont ski areas for this event is below.  It looks like accumulations topped out in the north, with a nadir in the Central Vermont Ski Areas, and then a bit of a resurgence in the south.  Mount Snow is talking about a lot of ice on their lifts and they are not operating today because of it.  With no accumulation reported, perhaps they were too far south for this event.  Mad River Glen did report a couple of inches of new accumulation in the report on their website, but they indicated that they are not operating today due to a combination of deficient snowpack and surface conditions.

 

Jay Peak: 5”

Smuggler’s Notch: 4”

Stowe: 3”

Mad River Glen: 2”

Sugarbush: 1”

Pico: 2”

Killington: 2”

Okemo: 3”

Stratton: 3”

Mount Snow: 0”

 

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

 

New Snow: 0.5 inches (sleet)

New Liquid: 0.19 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 2.6

Snow Density: 38.0% H2O

Temperature: 33.8 F

Sky: Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 2.0 inches

[Allenson]

Posted in the other thread but we picked up an inch of pretty much pure sleet here yesterday.  There was some ZR early on and then again last night (freezing drizzle, really).  Everything is pretty encased in a white icey layer.

 

Water content was just shy of 0.50".  Should be interesting as this stuff melts off today.  Still sitting at 32F now but with 40s on the way, it's going to get awfully sloppy here.

 

It's been a slow painful thaw here over the past few weeks.  The old native snow is almost gone but still have a few patches in the yard and quite a bit down in the cool shady spruce/fir woods below the house.  I'm looking forward to the completion of the thaw, including ground frost which still resides here.  The mud season has been long and torturously slow and at this point, I'm ready to turn the corner.

 

Models showing some true spring for the week ahead.  I'm game, let's do this.

[powderfreak]

Just started pouring in town and a friend is reporting heavy graupel at 3,600ft from up at the Stone Hut. 

 

Interesting pop up shower right over Mansfield that sort of came out of no where.

 

[powderfreak]

Another fine February morning up here... snowing nicely since around 5am.

 

 

 

 

 

[mreaves]

Just had an absolute dumping of giant snowflakes. Covered the ground in about 5 minutes. Petered out now.

[dendrite]

Currently 43.9F, but just had a graupel shower come through. Some of those pellets were pea sized.

[powderfreak]

36.5 at 1500ft with 27F at 3600ft...just started snowing pretty hard again down here.

Lots of pop-up squalls on the radar heading towards the spine.

[powderfreak]

Good skiing in the winter that keeps on giving... upper level troughs mixed with mountains make nice weather patterns. Only 14 inches left to hit 300" at 3,000ft.

[dendrite]

Currently 43.9F, but just had a graupel shower come through. Some of those pellets were pea sized.

Yeah...

[CoastalWx]

Had a graupel shower in Ogunquit too.

[powderfreak]

No grauple... just 1/8th mile visibility heavy snow. 

 

These squalls have flakes the size of your fist.

 

 

[dendrite]

More graupel. 47F

[Nittany88]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE THIS WINTER STOP.

[J.Spin]

36.5 at 1500ft with 27F at 3600ft...just started snowing pretty hard again down here.

Lots of pop-up squalls on the radar heading towards the spine.

 

Indeed – quite the showery matrix of echoes on the radar:

 

 

There’s no sustained accumulation to report down here in the Winooski Valley, but there was a trace of sleet on the board this morning with 0.13” of additional liquid in the bucket and we’ve had on and off sleet today here at the house with breaks of sun as well.  I saw on in the BTV NWS forecast discussion that we’ve got fairly typical spring temperatures going on with the various diurnal forms of precipitation in the mountains and valleys, and indeed that’s just how it felt; classic April weather in NNE.  I’ve updated the north to south list of 48-hour snow totals I’ve seen for the Vermont ski areas; as is typical the Northern Vermont resorts are leading the charge, with snow totals trending downward as one heads south:

 

Jay Peak: 7”

Smuggler’s Notch: 6”

Stowe: 5”

Sugarbush: 3”

Pico: 2”

Killington: 3”

Okemo: 3”

Stratton: 3”

Mount Snow: 1”

[#NoPoles]

ski pics at Stowe look so good!!! Love it!

[Lava Rock]

Must be getting tired of the snow PF. I'm tired of seeing white out pics in mid April. LOL

[wxeyeNH]

It's April 14th and my highest temperature for the year is 56F.  That's pretty depressing! Maybe tomorrow I can squeak out a 56F or 57F?

[wxeyeNH]

40.4F with a rainshower.  With binoculars I can look at the ridge next to me which is 1900 feet and see it is snowing huge flakes above 1500 feet.  Can even make out the snowflakes coming down at the top and then scanning down see them dissolve into rain at my elevation.  Very cool!

[powderfreak]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE THIS WINTER STOP.

 

Haha I'm right there with you.  I'm ready for something different.

 

Attempting a spring BBQing today.

 

 

[mreaves]

Did a lot of driving around the area this weekend.  Yesterday I drove through Allenson's neck of the woods to Bradford to look for some outdoor furniture and then up to Littleton, NH to Lowe's. I realize that only Allenson and hvysnow have much of an idea of where I am talking about but as I have noted before, this is an almost undiscovered section of the state and very scenic.   When I left here there was still a solid shield of sleet/ice/snow from Friday's event.  By the time I got to West Topsham on Rt. 25, there was none left.  The drive up the valley on Rt. 5 featured some very nice weather with blue skies and mild temps.  The ride back on 302 featured quite a bit of snow left through Groton.

 

Today we went up to Williston so my some could spend some birthday money.  The mountains were shrouded in snow most of the time.  The only significant weather we experienced was a hellacious sleet shower between exits 6 & 7 on 89.   I too am ready for the winter to end.

[J.Spin]

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE THIS WINTER STOP.

 

Come on, give Mother Nature a chance; we haven’t even reached average snowfall for the season out in the mountains.  We’re still below 90% of average snowfall to date here at the house.

 

On that winter precipitation note, I can pass along an afternoon weather update from the Winooski Valley and Bolton Valley areas.  In the mid to late afternoon, I headed up for a tour at Bolton.  Up to that point we’d had on and off bouts of precipitation in the valley, often showers mixed with sleet, but no notable accumulation other than transient stuff.  Temperatures were in the mid 40s F in the 300’-500’ elevation range along the bottom of the Winooski Valley as I headed westward toward Bolton; we’d had breaks of sun among the clouds and precipitation, and I was preparing for some fairly soft and slushy spring turns up on the hill.  Precipitation was pretty sparse as I headed up the Bolton Valley Access Road, and while there’s patchy snow all the way up out of the valley, consistent natural snowpack really didn’t appear until roughly the 1,500’ elevation at the Timberline Base.  Temperatures had dropped into the upper 30s F by that elevation, and light snow was falling.  It was mid to late afternoon, but it was actually pretty dark with the clouds around, and more of them appeared to be building in from the west.  Based on the available light, it actually felt like a typical November outing in the mountains:

 

 

On the slopes, the snow wasn’t really the mushy spring snow that the valley temperatures had given me the impression I’d find; I think the temperatures and/or available sunlight really weren’t high enough to support that.  Instead what I found was the couple inches of wet snow/sleet that we’ve picked up from these latest storms, sitting atop the base.  The subsurface was still fairly soft and spring-like, presumably due to the recent rounds of wet precipitation percolating some moisture down in there.  The intensity of the snowfall was fairly light on the ascent, although I could see squalls around off to the west.  There was one off to the south, and another more ominous-looking one off to the north, they were both starting to devour the views of the Adirondacks and looked like the spine of the Greens was in their path:

 

 

Up around the Timberline Mid Station at 2,250’, the surface snow began to have a bit more coalesced consistency relative to what was below.  The temperature was approaching the freezing mark, and it appeared to be due to a combination of elevation and some cooler air coming in with the approaching weather.  I topped out at the Timberline Summit at 2,500’, and the temperature by that point was either below freezing or very close – the trees still held snow from the recent storms:

 

 

The snow was good on the descent, transitioning from that stronger, peel-away stuff in the higher elevations, to a wetter consistency down low.  It was very much like what we experienced yesterday at Stowe up to the midday hour before the freezing level rose up above the summit of the Fourrunner Quad.  There are certainly areas starting to develop bare patches at Timberline, but if you wanted you could ski natural snow terrain all the way down to the Timberline Base; that’s pretty decent for west-facing terrain down at those low elevations this time of year

 

The precipitation that had been looming off to the west finally pushed its way over the ridge and into the valley as I was switching out of my ski gear at the car.  In typical Bolton Valley style, it came strong, and it was snowfall that meant business.  It wasn’t quite the whiteout that I saw in Powderfreak’s Stowe pictures, I think in part because the flakes weren’t as large (probably about ½” max in diameter), but a decent wall of snow came in and made its presence known:

 

 

If that snow had been rain, it would have been pouring, and indeed I was able to watch that transition as I descended back down the access road.  The snow stayed with me down to around the 500’ elevation, and finally mixed out to just a pouring rain.  That rain followed me through the lower elevations of the Winooski Valley, and then by the time I got up a bit higher back at that house along the Waterbury/Bolton line, snow was mixing back in.  Checking the radar a little while later, it showed a nice shot of moisture making its way through the Winooski Valley:

 

 

There’s no accumulation to report down here at this point, but there been roughly another tenth of an inch of liquid in the gauge from today’s on and off activity.  The snow from this most recent event has been hanging pretty tough in the yard, but it’s just about gone now, and then we’ll be back to just the leftovers of the winter snowpack.

[OceanStWx]

Had a graupel shower in Ogunquit too.

 

Really wish there was a way to put that into our forecast grids. For whatever reason small hail can't be added to a rain shower unless thunder is attached to it. Otherwise our formatter blows up. Go figure.

[Allenson]

Finally had a nice clearish night last night with drying air and pretty heavy frost this morning.  I'll go out on a limb and say that this week is the corner we've been waiting to turn.  Other than a couple spots, the frost seems to be finally be out of our road/driveway and the mud has mercifully dried up.

 

We had showers of just about everything yesterday:  rain, sleet & snow.

 

Did a lot of driving around the area this weekend.  Yesterday I drove through Allenson's neck of the woods to Bradford to look for some outdoor furniture and then up to Littleton, NH to Lowe's. I realize that only Allenson and hvysnow have much of an idea of where I am talking about but as I have noted before, this is an almost undiscovered section of the state and very scenic.   When I left here there was still a solid shield of sleet/ice/snow from Friday's event.  By the time I got to West Topsham on Rt. 25, there was none left.  The drive up the valley on Rt. 5 featured some very nice weather with blue skies and mild temps.  The ride back on 302 featured quite a bit of snow left through Groton.

 

 

 

Nice dude--we're at the same elevation as West Topsham and a few miles south as the crow flies.  We're near Corinth Corners in the SW corner of town.  And yeah, it's kind of an lesser-known part of the region.  We just don't have much in the way of attractions to draw attention to us:  no ski resorts, no big inns, no shopping, etc.  Just muscular hills and tiny villages.   Even folks who've lived in Hanver/Leb/WRJ for years (but come from elsewhere) don't really know where Corinth is. 

 

Most of our sleet pack lasted about half the day on Saturday but some made it all the way to yesterday morning.  All gone now.  We still have quite a bit of old snow in the back yard and down in the woods and I can see solid white through the trees on the top of the ridge just south of us that approaches 2K.  This is the north side of this ridge, so I would reckon that the south side doesn't have nearly as much.

[mreaves]

Finally had a nice clearish night last night with drying air and pretty heavy frost this morning.  I'll go out on a limb and say that this week is the corner we've been waiting to turn.  Other than a couple spots, the frost seems to be finally be out of our road/driveway and the mud has mercifully dried up.

 

We had showers of just about everything yesterday:  rain, sleet & snow.

 

 

Nice dude--we're at the same elevation as West Topsham and a few miles south as the crow flies.  We're near Corinth Corners in the SW corner of town.  And yeah, it's kind of an lesser-known part of the region.  We just don't have much in the way of attractions to draw attention to us:  no ski resorts, no big inns, no shopping, etc.  Just muscular hills and tiny villages.   Even folks who've lived in Hanver/Leb/WRJ for years (but come from elsewhere) don't really know where Corinth is. 

 

Most of our sleet pack lasted about half the day on Saturday but some made it all the way to yesterday morning.  All gone now.  We still have quite a bit of old snow in the back yard and down in the woods and I can see solid white through the trees on the top of the ridge just south of us that approaches 2K.  This is the north side of this ridge, so I would reckon that the south side doesn't have nearly as much.

What about Northeast Slopes?  

[powderfreak]

Finally had a nice clearish night last night with drying air and pretty heavy frost this morning.  I'll go out on a limb and say that this week is the corner we've been waiting to turn.  Other than a couple spots, the frost seems to be finally be out of our road/driveway and the mud has mercifully dried up.

 

We had showers of just about everything yesterday:  rain, sleet & snow.

 

 

Nice dude--we're at the same elevation as West Topsham and a few miles south as the crow flies.  We're near Corinth Corners in the SW corner of town.  And yeah, it's kind of an lesser-known part of the region.  We just don't have much in the way of attractions to draw attention to us:  no ski resorts, no big inns, no shopping, etc.  Just muscular hills and tiny villages.   Even folks who've lived in Hanver/Leb/WRJ for years (but come from elsewhere) don't really know where Corinth is. 

 

Most of our sleet pack lasted about half the day on Saturday but some made it all the way to yesterday morning.  All gone now.  We still have quite a bit of old snow in the back yard and down in the woods and I can see solid white through the trees on the top of the ridge just south of us that approaches 2K.  This is the north side of this ridge, so I would reckon that the south side doesn't have nearly as much.

 

I love your area of Vermont... its classic Vermont in the traditional sense.  Over here is like the disneyland version, though I'll admit for as much of a tourist trap Stowe is, the village does retain a good deal of character with the white steeple church on Main Street type of deal, more so than like Killington.

 

I always love your photos because it doesn't appear as though you can see many houses or people *at all* from a lot of your vantage points.  Over here there's trophy homes on most ridges below 2,000ft... like the Kellogg mansion at 1,800ft (like the family that started the Kellogg's cereal).  You can find million+ dollar homes in a lot of areas with good views... places that like Julia Roberts stay in when they come to visit.

[mreaves]

I love your area of Vermont... its classic Vermont in the traditional sense.  Over here is like the disneyland version, though I'll admit for as much of a tourist trap Stowe is, the village does retain a good deal of character with the white steeple church on Main Street type of deal, more so than like Killington.

 

I always love your photos because it doesn't appear as though you can see many houses or people *at all* from a lot of your vantage points.  Over here there's trophy homes on most ridges below 2,000ft... like the Kellogg mansion at 1,800ft (like the family that started the Kellogg's cereal).  You can find million+ dollar homes in a lot of areas with good views... places that like Julia Roberts stay in when they come to visit.

Among the reasons I tend to gravitate towards the east of Chittenden County and ski area regions.  Most of the "Disneyland" areas still retain some character, you just have to look for it harder in those areas.