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NNE Winter 2013-14 Part I


klw

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6Z models backed off on the cold. 00Z euro op did too, but the ec ens held their ground with the -20s...strange.

 

THE COMBINATION OF FORECAST

WINDS/TEMPS WILL MAKE FOR WIND CHILLS ACROSS PORTIONS OF NORTHERN

NEW YORK IN THE -15F TO -25F RANGE...AND THUS HAVE CONTINUED

ADVISORY PREVIOUSLY ISSUED. ELSEWHERE CHILLS OF -5F TO -15F CAN BE

EXPECTED. WINDS DROP OFF THIS AFTERNOON SO THE WIND CHILL THREAT

DIMINISHES BUT WE`RE IN FOR AN EXTREMELY COLD NIGHT SO IT`LL

REMAIN BRUTAL OUT THERE.

 

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Event totals: 10.4” Snow/0.84” L.E.

 

Last night, 1.3” of gorgeous champagne fell here at the house to finish off the most recent storm – it was far fluffier than anything that came during the bulk of the event.  If that last push of the storm was falling with blocked flow, it might have help those low snowfall areas of the west slopes to get a little more accumulation to top off the storm totals.

 

If anything, this storm came in with a bit more liquid equivalent for our location than the forecast seemed to suggest.  Even without the final addition to the storm, the snowfall was within the range that the BTV NWS had for us – I’d say it was only toward the lower end of the range because of the snow density.  If snow ratios had been up toward that 20:1 area, storm snowfall would likely have been in the 15”+ range.  In any event, it is the largest storm of the season to date, beating out the big November storm by a couple of inches, and it’s the first storm to reach double digits.

 

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

 

New Snow: 1.3 inches

New Liquid: 0.03 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 43.3

Snow Density: 2.3% H2O

Temperature: 9.3 F

Sky: Mostly Clear

Snow at the stake: 12.5 inches

 

I see that there’s another version of the BTV accumulations map for the storm – it looks like they might have updated it a bit since the one that PF posted earlier.

 

16DEC13A.jpg

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With the "air fluff" last night we had an additional 0.4" or so putting the storm total at 6.6" and the season at 14.8" (Which is 1 tenth difference from the season total at the airport, so as expected the airport continues to be pretty representative of conditions here).

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With the additional inch+ of snow between the light stuff yesterday morning and the uber fluff last night, I ended up with 12".  In looking at the BTV map posted by J.Spin, my location is right between the 11" and15" amounts on the border between Washington and Orange counties, so my number correlates with those pretty well.  My plow guy said he measured 14".

 

I haven't heard much about the weekend for this area but BTV's long term discussion doesn't sound like the snow will get wiped out.

LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/...
AS OF 234 AM EST MONDAY...TEMPERATURES DURING THE PERIOD WILL TREND
WARMER AND CLOSER TO SEASONAL AVERAGES...WHILE TWO MIXED
PRECIPITATION EVENTS ARE POSSIBLE...ON FRIDAY AND AGAIN FOR
SUNDAY. CONSISTENCY BETWEEN THE 00Z ECMWF AND GFS IS GOOD ON THE
OVERALL SYNOPTIC REGIME...BUT IMPORTANT MESOSCALE DETAILS
AFFECTING PRECIPITATION TYPE AND AMOUNTS FOR FRIDAY AND SUNDAY CAN
NOT YET BE RESOLVED.

A FAST ZONAL FLOW REGIME WILL BE IN PLACE ACROSS THE NORTH COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL BE MODERATING
SOMEWHAT (CLOSER TO SEASONAL NORMS) DURING THE PERIOD AS A SFC RIDGE
PUSHES EAST OF THE REGION. WSW-SW LOW-LEVEL FLOW WED NIGHT AND THU
BRINGS MOISTURE FROM THE GREAT LAKES LIKELY MAINTAINING PERIODS OF
CLOUDY SKIES. FORECAST TEMPERATURES ARE CLOSE TO 00Z MEX-MOS
GUIDANCE...MAINLY LOW-MID TEENS WEDNESDAY NIGHT...FOLLOWED BY HIGHS
IN THE UPR 20S ON THURSDAY. LOW-LEVEL DEFORMATION ZONE ACROSS NY AND
NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND RESULTS IN DEVELOPING LOW-LEVEL FRONTAL ZONE
FRIDAY...WITH 00Z GFS SHOWING A QUICK-MOVING WAVE LOW ALONG THE
BNDRY AS UPR FLOW TURNS SW. THE 00Z ECMWF DEVELOPS THE BAROCLINIC
ZONE TO OUR WEST. AS A RESULT...S-SW FLOW IN THE 00Z ECMWF BRINGS
WARMER TEMPS INTO THE REGION DURING THE DAY FRIDAY...WITH TEMPS
LIKELY APPROACHING 40F IN THE CHAMPLAIN VLY. COULD SEE SOME MIXED
WINTRY PRECIPITATION WITHIN FRONTAL ZONE ACROSS THE NORTH
COUNTRY...AND WILL CARRY 50-60% POPS. DETAILS ON MIXED PCPN VS.
PLAIN RAIN FOR FRIDAY ARE TOO EARLY TO DISCERN GIVEN NWP
DIFFERENCES WITH FRONTAL PLACEMENT. TEMPS LIKEWISE TRICKY DEPENDING
ON WHERE QUASI-STATIONARY FRONTAL ZONE SETS UP...BUT WILL CARRY
HIGHS MID-UPR 30S AT THIS POINT FOR FRIDAY. FRONT SAGS SLOWLY SEWD
SATURDAY WITH LESSER POTL FOR PRECIPITATION AS SFC HIGH PRESSURE
BUILDS IN FROM THE NORTHWEST. HIGHS ON SATURDAY SHOULD BE IN THE
UPR 20S TO LOWER 30S. MODEL UNCERTAINTY INCREASES TOWARD SUNDAY
WITH 00Z GFS SHOWING MAINLY DRY CONDITIONS. THE 00Z ECMWF SHOWS
ADDITIONAL FRONTAL WAVE WITH POTENTIAL FOR SNOW/WINTRY MIX. WILL
CONTINUE TO CARRY CHANCE POPS FOR SUNDAY ATTM WITH DAYTIME TEMPS
MAINLY IN THE LOW-MID 30S.
 

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With the additional inch+ of snow between the light stuff yesterday morning and the uber fluff last night, I ended up with 12".  In looking at the BTV map posted by J.Spin, my location is right between the 11" and15" amounts on the border between Washington and Orange counties, so my number correlates with those pretty well.  My plow guy said he measured 14".

 

I haven't heard much about the weekend for this area but BTV's long term discussion doesn't sound like the snow will get wiped out.

LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/...

AS OF 234 AM EST MONDAY...TEMPERATURES DURING THE PERIOD WILL TREND

WARMER AND CLOSER TO SEASONAL AVERAGES...WHILE TWO MIXED

PRECIPITATION EVENTS ARE POSSIBLE...ON FRIDAY AND AGAIN FOR

SUNDAY. CONSISTENCY BETWEEN THE 00Z ECMWF AND GFS IS GOOD ON THE

OVERALL SYNOPTIC REGIME...BUT IMPORTANT MESOSCALE DETAILS

AFFECTING PRECIPITATION TYPE AND AMOUNTS FOR FRIDAY AND SUNDAY CAN

NOT YET BE RESOLVED.

A FAST ZONAL FLOW REGIME WILL BE IN PLACE ACROSS THE NORTH COUNTRY

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL BE MODERATING

SOMEWHAT (CLOSER TO SEASONAL NORMS) DURING THE PERIOD AS A SFC RIDGE

PUSHES EAST OF THE REGION. WSW-SW LOW-LEVEL FLOW WED NIGHT AND THU

BRINGS MOISTURE FROM THE GREAT LAKES LIKELY MAINTAINING PERIODS OF

CLOUDY SKIES. FORECAST TEMPERATURES ARE CLOSE TO 00Z MEX-MOS

GUIDANCE...MAINLY LOW-MID TEENS WEDNESDAY NIGHT...FOLLOWED BY HIGHS

IN THE UPR 20S ON THURSDAY. LOW-LEVEL DEFORMATION ZONE ACROSS NY AND

NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND RESULTS IN DEVELOPING LOW-LEVEL FRONTAL ZONE

FRIDAY...WITH 00Z GFS SHOWING A QUICK-MOVING WAVE LOW ALONG THE

BNDRY AS UPR FLOW TURNS SW. THE 00Z ECMWF DEVELOPS THE BAROCLINIC

ZONE TO OUR WEST. AS A RESULT...S-SW FLOW IN THE 00Z ECMWF BRINGS

WARMER TEMPS INTO THE REGION DURING THE DAY FRIDAY...WITH TEMPS

LIKELY APPROACHING 40F IN THE CHAMPLAIN VLY. COULD SEE SOME MIXED

WINTRY PRECIPITATION WITHIN FRONTAL ZONE ACROSS THE NORTH

COUNTRY...AND WILL CARRY 50-60% POPS. DETAILS ON MIXED PCPN VS.

PLAIN RAIN FOR FRIDAY ARE TOO EARLY TO DISCERN GIVEN NWP

DIFFERENCES WITH FRONTAL PLACEMENT. TEMPS LIKEWISE TRICKY DEPENDING

ON WHERE QUASI-STATIONARY FRONTAL ZONE SETS UP...BUT WILL CARRY

HIGHS MID-UPR 30S AT THIS POINT FOR FRIDAY. FRONT SAGS SLOWLY SEWD

SATURDAY WITH LESSER POTL FOR PRECIPITATION AS SFC HIGH PRESSURE

BUILDS IN FROM THE NORTHWEST. HIGHS ON SATURDAY SHOULD BE IN THE

UPR 20S TO LOWER 30S. MODEL UNCERTAINTY INCREASES TOWARD SUNDAY

WITH 00Z GFS SHOWING MAINLY DRY CONDITIONS. THE 00Z ECMWF SHOWS

ADDITIONAL FRONTAL WAVE WITH POTENTIAL FOR SNOW/WINTRY MIX. WILL

CONTINUE TO CARRY CHANCE POPS FOR SUNDAY ATTM WITH DAYTIME TEMPS

MAINLY IN THE LOW-MID 30S.

 

 

Steady as she goes.  Keep the faith.

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Nice, J.Spin... that cam was fun to check in on every once in a while. 

 

It’s great to hear that you were able to check that out PF; I’ll probably fire it up for some of these larger storms to watch the progress on larger totals and get a storm depth when the snowfall stops (to have a sense for settling).

 

15DEC13D.jpg

 

As you can see from the pristine stack atop the large block, wind was very minimal as usual for our location.  But, you may also have noticed that there were still nuances in the way the snow settled around the blocks (especially the large one) since it doesn’t take much to perturb the air flow in the area, and the size and shape of the blocks makes a difference.  What I’d like to do eventually would be to use a metal pole like the one you have at your measurement site (or perhaps a dowel on a board would be even easier for me to put together) and put markings and numbers on that.  I can see the advantage of a circular object (like a pole) that has no flat faces, and perhaps that’s one of the reasons that the experts have those.  Regardless of which direction any wind is coming from, with a pole you’ve got an equivalently circular surface facing it for the least disruption of the air flow.  I know that even those will show differences on different sides based on the pictures you’ve showed us after various storms, but it seems like the best overall approach.  Also, it’s definitely a situation where thinner is better; the thinner the measurement object is, the less disruption of air flow there is.  Ideally you’d want the pole to be infinitely thin, but then you can’t read it, and I need mine to be at least fat enough that I can read it from the distance of the camera.  What I need is some sort of holographic projection that places a measurement scale right out there in the space visible to the camera, but since it has no physical presence, it will never disrupt the snow deposition.  It would be something like that yellow line they have in football to mark first downs on TV – it never interferes with the players because it’s not actually there.

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Today was a cold day on the hill.  First chairlift day- one run and done. Decided to hike into the Notch instead.   About 12-18" of fluff on top of a pretty soft base.  Not bulletproof, would not be in the woods skiing- but some people were. Parking lot/chairlift observations would tell you that it would be a rough bottom half of the mountain.  Definitely the younger crowd hitting the woods...

 

The 24" threshold J. Spin speaks of works for the upper mountain (2500'+) natural snow trails and some well-maintained glades (some skied-out upper mtn. glades looked quite nice, actually) as others have said. Any sort of comfortable backcountry really requires 40" at the stake.

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Its really interesting to see how the NWS puts out advisory and watches/warnings by county.  For instance tomorrow they have no WW advisory for Carroll county which starts just 25 miles west of the SE coast of NH.  They do have an advisory for Merrimack county which goes west to about 25 miles SE of Lebanon.  Just does not make sense. Are areas just SE of Lebanon going to get more snow than just WNW of the Atlantic, I think not!  I have no advisory because I am in Grafton county but all the areas around me do, except to my NW.

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wxeyeNH, on 16 Dec 2013 - 4:29 PM, said:

Its really interesting to see how the NWS puts out advisory and watches/warnings by county.  For instance tomorrow they have no WW advisory for Carroll county which starts just 25 miles west of the SE coast of NH.  They do have an advisory for Merrimack county which goes west to about 25 miles SE of Lebanon.  Just does not make sense. Are areas just SE of Lebanon going to get more snow than just WNW of the Atlantic, I think not!  I have no advisory because I am in Grafton county but all the areas around me do, except to my NW.

 

My guess is that they're seeing advisory criteria being met in southern Merrimack Co (thererfore being included in the wwa). but not as far north as southern Caroll.

 

The whole county won't see advisory criteria though.

 

BTV actually split a few counties so address this sort of thing.

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Today was a cold day on the hill.  First chairlift day- one run and done. Decided to hike into the Notch instead.   About 12-18" of fluff on top of a pretty soft base.  Not bulletproof, would not be in the woods skiing- but some people were. Parking lot/chairlift observations would tell you that it would be a rough bottom half of the mountain.  Definitely the younger crowd hitting the woods...

 

The 24" threshold J. Spin speaks of works for the upper mountain (2500'+) natural snow trails and some well-maintained glades (some skied-out upper mtn. glades looked quite nice, actually) as others have said. Any sort of comfortable backcountry really requires 40" at the stake.

 

Yeah, 40" is the real benchmark for a reason.  The woods look very shady right now...very shady.  You are just asking for trouble this time of year.  Plus the trails are skiing so well that there's really no reason to push it in the woods.

 

This was Chin Clip at Stowe this morning after 1-3 more inches fell overnight (some people argued it was more, but the snowboards don't lie).  This was beaten down yesterday afternoon, then mother nature hit the refresh button overnight.  It was chilly out but that's the benefit of a Gondola...I just lapped that today and the turns were pretty freakin' sweet for December 16th.  Not often Chin Clip skis this well so early in the season.

 

1526307_10151756179952382_803055493_n.jp

 

1524833_10151756179957382_830136214_n.jp

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My guess is that they're seeing advisory criteria being met in southern Merrimack Co (thererfore being included in the wwa). but not as far north as southern Caroll.

 

The whole county won't see advisory criteria though.

 

BTV actually split a few counties so address this sort of thing.

I was curious so I called Grey Maine.  Spoke to a nice female met.  She said that they can break up some counties but not others.  For instance they can break up Grafton county and issue for just the northern or southern half.  They can't do it for Carroll county.  They know its a problem in NH.  Out west the counties are more square but we have the funky shapes which lead to misleading advisories sometimes.

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I took my first turns of the season today. It got quite chilly by the end with the wind, but it was great to be out there again! It was also nice as there was hardly anyone else out there on the mountain (the advantage of getting weekdays off). Anyway looking ahead it looks like this weekend's storm (Sunday) will be WAA snow followed by some rain with snow on the back end once again. The Euro is actually pretty robust on those back end amounts, but we will see (5-8" in northern VT).

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Its really interesting to see how the NWS puts out advisory and watches/warnings by county.  For instance tomorrow they have no WW advisory for Carroll county which starts just 25 miles west of the SE coast of NH.  They do have an advisory for Merrimack county which goes west to about 25 miles SE of Lebanon.  Just does not make sense. Are areas just SE of Lebanon going to get more snow than just WNW of the Atlantic, I think not!  I have no advisory because I am in Grafton county but all the areas around me do, except to my NW.

 

It's not ideal, but it's all we have. You can play that game all day, add this country but then the other county sticks out, so add that county too, but then this other county looks funny.

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Just saw this in the PNS...

3 E Northfield 15.9 511 am 12/16

There is no way in hell...

 

These PNSs get so ugly. It's hard to rule out the weenie from the accurate report, especially when they diligently report at least twice over a two day storm.

 

I had your report, this 15.9" and a 9.6" report all within a 5 mile radius.

 

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I was curious so I called Grey Maine.  Spoke to a nice female met.  She said that they can break up some counties but not others.  For instance they can break up Grafton county and issue for just the northern or southern half.  They can't do it for Carroll county.  They know its a problem in NH.  Out west the counties are more square but we have the funky shapes which lead to misleading advisories sometimes.

 

Actually we can't just choose to split a county, we have to go through a process to make it official and that county is then always split. So it adds to the number of zones, which effects a number of products. So it's not something we do lightly. All of our northern counties are split (Coos, Grafton, Carroll, Oxford, Franklin, Somerset (which is split three ways actually with CAR taking the top)). Then we've also split a coastal zone from all our coastal counties (except for parts of the Midcoast). See how confusing this gets already? Ha

 

We have issues all over the place though. The "tail" in Cumberland county that sticks into Oxford. They get conditions the rest of the county doesn't see all the time, and can be surrounded by headlines in Oxford on three sides! Merrimack is another big problem county because the NW half to third is mostly above 800 feet. Big difference from the SE part.

 

Here is what it looks like (counties in black, zone splits in white, CWAs in red).

 

post-44-0-86935700-1387241807_thumb.jpg

 

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