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NNE Winter 2013-14 Part I


klw

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some pretty wild variations from locale to locale.

 

we been hovering from the low of 27F before sunrise to as high as 34F, sitting at 30F now, almost  3" of new snow today mixed in with the kitchen sink, drizzle, freezing drizzle, as PF said some chunks of something.  Cleaned some stuff off around the house and it is heart attack snow now.

 

see what she brings

 

I was just out back shoveling the deck, and we’ve got sprinkles of rain with icing taking place, but there were also some flakes and sleet pellets in the mix, so that’s nice to see.  The more we can get of this conglomeration as snow or sleet the better.  The temperature is 28.4 F, but it’s been up and down now and isn’t dropping the way it was before.  The pack is definitely taking on a glaze, but hopefully those low 20s F from the Champlain Valley don’t bleed this way.

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I was just out back shoveling the deck, and we’ve got sprinkles of rain with icing taking place, but there were also some flakes and sleet pellets in the mix, so that’s nice to see.  The more we can get of this conglomeration as snow or sleet the better.  The temperature is 28.4 F, but it’s been up and down now and isn’t dropping the way it was before.  The pack is definitely taking on a glaze, but hopefully those low 20s F from the Champlain Valley don’t bleed this way.

 

Fascinating temperature spread... the east slope ski areas like Sugarbush/MRG/Stowe are all seeing the warmest temps right now, which is odd because those are often the coldest spots during mixed precipitation events in our area...tucked up against the east slope of the Spine. 

 

We are right at 32F now here at my place with some slight ice noted on the tree branches.  The difference though between Stowe base and the Smuggs base is 10 degrees and they are just on different sides of the Notch a mere 2 miles away.

 

Dec_20_ice.png

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I’ve added the most recent evening update of the BTV advisories map.  The Winter Weather Advisories are broken into a couple of different zones, with one covering the northern counties in New York State as well as the northern Champlain Valley into extreme Northern Vermont, and the other one, which includes Essex County in New York, portions of Central Vermont, and the central Champlain Valley.  That’s the one we’re in, which says up to an inch of snow and sleet accumulation and a tenth of an inch of ice, with the potential for an additional quarter to half inch of ice Saturday into Sunday.  Orange County is also under a Winter Storm Watch for that Saturday/Sunday ice.

 

20DEC13C.jpg

 

The temperature has dropped again here to 26.6 F, but there’s no precipitation falling at the moment.

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Finally down to 32° here at 875' after sitting at 33° for like nine straight hours.

Not too often we are jealous of the Champlain Valley's winter weather and temps ;)

I like a little ice...more interesting than just plain rain, but I don't want the power issues. The perfect medium would be wasting about a half inch of QPF on ZR so that the trees get all sparkling, but then it warms up just in time to avoid major issues, haha.

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I'm going to do a core later as last nights snow was ridiculously dry...curious what I can get for a ratio.

 

We are in our nickle and dime season now (generally Dec/Jan) and we've had around like 4" in the last 48 hours, but if you weren't measuring it on a snow board you may not have even realized it, haha.

 

I had a half inch as of 11pm last night and then the 1.4" this morning, so 1.9" last 24 hours, but all it really does is pad the seasonal totals haha. It is nice to have that wintery feeling though and flakes in the air often.

 

I hadn’t had a chance to comment on our “snow globe” pattern yet, but that was a fun little stretch.  In some respects you have to earn your totals during those stretches by being rigorous about making those measurements.  It’s easy to just blow it off (perhaps an apropos statement based on the snow density) and skip measurements because they’re just fluff.  More than just padding the totals though, I’d say it’s part of the area’s aesthetics as well – the trees get that constant resupply of fluff to keep them looking wintry, and because those daily doses often fall without the nasty winds that can accompany larger storms, the snow stays put.  And, the champagne snowfalls are definitely relevant to the skiing; while they don’t substantiate the liquid equivalent in the base (that’s what storms like the current one are hopefully doing) they add those top layers of low-density powder to kick the skiing up to that next level.  I stopped in at Bolton’s Timberline area yesterday morning for some turns, and boy was that powder sweet!  Even though the 3 to 4 inches they’d reported in the previous 48 hours wasn’t contributing much to the base since it was ultra dry fluff, it was definitely playing a huge part in topping off the density gradient to make for some fantastic turns.  Those daily doses of fluff are often what keep the skiing around here at that next level.

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I will say I just switched from a ground based board to an elevated one (still need to paint it white) but since I don't see much wind at all here at 750ft in the valley, the snow falls evenly, and an elevated board is so much easier to measure (good sight line level with the snow) accurately. I also have it set up now that I can easily flip the board to start fresh on the other side in those situations with rain changing to snow or anytime there's melt water on the board...just flip it over as soon as precip switches to snow and start accumulating on a dry surface to get a much more accurate measurement.

 

That’s sweet PF; I’ve learned that you want to have the ability to switch that snowboard surface easily – I used to deal with an ice scraper when I had my old board permanently affixed to a pole, and that eventually became intolerable.  These types of storms are the perfect example of why you want a fresh surface – right now my board is coated with a layer of ice, and depending on temperatures, that may take a while to melt.  But when you can flip it (or in my case I’ve got a second board that I can slap in place) you’re good to go.  I actually stick my encrusted boards right next to our house and they often get thawed by the water heater vent, but it’s also possible to stick them in a garage, or I’ve even stuck them in the bathtub overnight if I knew the outside temperatures weren’t going to allow much thawing.  Nice job going with the elevated surface – it really makes measurement so much easier.  Even in the case of the ground-based snowboards I use, I often pick them up and stick them on our deck to get a good view for measurement purposes.

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Event totals: 0.3” Snow/0.26” L.E.

 

There’s roughly a tenth of an inch of ice out there, and the deck makes a nice skating rink at the moment.  Based on the forecast, it sounds like it will warm up enough today to melt off the current glaze, although the forecast calls for it to go back to freezing rain early tomorrow morning.

 

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

 

New Liquid: 0.13 inches

Temperature: 30.0 F

Sky: Mostly Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 7.5 inches

 

The BTV advisories map has now taken on quite the purplish hue, with Ice Storm Warnings across the northern tier and down into the Saint Lawrence Valley and  Champlain Valley, and Freezing Rain Advisories covering many areas in the next tier.

 

21DEC13A.jpg

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Had a little glazing here last evening as we sat right at 32 after a high of 34.

 

Now rotting away at 32.5*

 

Over a foot of snow on the ground but it's very soft with no firm base underneath except the rock solid ground.

 

Gonna be an interesting weekend.  Not expecting much ice here--just isn't a good set-up for us in the eastern hills.  At this point I'm just hoping to keep some of the snowcover to give any fresh stuff something to land on once we get through this mess.

 

The brooks and rivers are choked with ice.  Could be some issues there if we get a couple inches of rain...

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Just came home from another salting run this morning. In total we have spread nearly 14 tons of salt on our properties in the Chittenden county area in 4 service visits for commercial and 3 for residential HOAs/ condos in roughly 20 hours. Could barely keep up with it yesterday and as of this morning everything is almost back to a slushy runoff. Another tandem load comes today .

But watching the rain fall here in Grand Isle @ 20 degrees is truly unnerving. I hope i can make it anywhere tomorrow morning.

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