J.Spin Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Event totals: 3.9” Snow/0.13” L.E. Sunday 1/16/2011 6:00 A.M. update: We had another decent round of precipitation overnight, picking up 1.9” snow and 0.07” additional liquid. Below are some of the VT ski area snow totals I’ve seen for this clipper, listed north to south. There’s not too much of a trend with latitude, as the totals jump up and down quite a bit along the spine: Jay Peak: 7” Burke: 3” Smuggler’s Notch: 3” Stowe: 9” Bolton Valley: 3” Mad River Glen: 4” Sugarbush: 7” Middlebury: 4” Pico: 4” Killington: 4” Okemo: 3” Bromley: 3” Magic Mountain: 1” Stratton: 3” Mount Snow: 6” Some details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations are below: New Snow: 1.9 inches New Liquid: 0.07 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 27.1 Snow Density: 3.7% Temperature: 18.5 F Sky: Light Snow (2-4 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 17.0 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Hey, glad to see the site back up. Had a low of -4F yesterday morning. Not the coldest of the season though. Our only other below zero reading was on the morning of 12/10/10 when we dipped to -5F. Light snow came in earlier than I expected yesterday and a nice little clipper even ensued: 4.0" of fresh fluff as of 7:15 this morning. Liquid content of 0.13". Broom snow! Poof! Big day, let's go Pats. Active week ahead by the looks of things..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Picked up 2.5" of pure fluff overnight. The pines out back are absolutely gorgeous this morning. Looks like a fun week ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 Looks like between 3-4" of new snow... broom snow as Allenson said. Plow just went by the snow was basically evaporating as he pushed it, haha. Early word from the hill is around 6" of airy fluff at the base. Yeah baby, its a powder day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I had 1.0" with 0.03" w.e. I've never had anything like 0.7"/0.01" before. I think my best is 0.9"/0.02" for 45:1. At those kinds of small amounts I suppose it is possible albeit short-lived. We're talking about a couple of tenths of liquid though...you can probably sublimate/evaporate 0.01" of it before you bring it in to melt it down. Great points dendrite: -I find that a lot of those really high ratios are simply a function of sub-inch amounts, where flakes are still stacked perfectly at observation time; the ratios would be notably lower if even a couple of inches had fallen and crushed the stuff below. It's still quite neat, but more impressive are the measurements that have a half foot of snow and still fairly high ratios - there you know that the crystals at the bottom of the stack are even holding that ratio with their friends on top. -When measuring these tiny amounts of fluff, I will generally stack several cores (often as many as 5 or 6) to ensure that I get a reasonable amount of liquid for analysis, and then divide the result appropriately. In the case of last night’s one, I stacked three cores from my 6.8 cm diameter cylinder and obtained 2.83 mL of liquid, which when one runs the math (well, thankfully when Excel runs the math) indicates 0.102 inches of liquid precipitation depending on how far I’m willing to push the significant digits based on the equipment. That one was actually pretty close to an even 0.01, which is nice, but the biggest rounding errors in the ratios actually come from rounding to move to the typical hundredths of an inch precipitation notation. If I measure something like 0.017 inches of liquid, that gets rounded to 0.02 inches. I calculate the ratio number/snow density off the rounded liquid number in the reports, otherwise what people see listed for snow and water amounts wouldn’t jive with the calculated ratio. For example, if an inch of snow is listed, and 0.05 inches of liquid are listed, the ratio should be a nice 20 to 1. Since I don’t display the actual liquid numbers before rounding in my report, which may have been 0.046 inches, displaying the ratio that comes from that (21.7 to 1) wouldn’t be consistent with the rest of what is reported. The bottom line is that the displayed ratios can be a little off for the smallest amounts of snow and liquid, but they’re generally OK. It’s minutiae anyway as far as practical weather is concerned, but it’s fun trying to measure and report it in the best possible way nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j24vt Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 4.0" of fluff last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Hello everyone. New guy here after lurking for a few weeks. I'm two miles northwest of downtown Montpelier at 900' elevation. A solid inch and a half of new fluff here on Saturday after the eight inches from last Wednesday's storm. I'm pretty weather savvy compared to the general population but nowhere near as well informed as most of you guys. I hope to learn a lot (as I already have) from this forum and...not embarrass myself too much. greetings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvysnow79 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Was surprised to see another 2" had fallen overnight to bring the total to 3.4". Went for a great snowshoe yesterday and it is looking like another in store for today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Great points dendrite: -I find that a lot of those really high ratios are simply a function of sub-inch amounts, where flakes are still stacked perfectly at observation time; the ratios would be notably lower if even a couple of inches had fallen and crushed the stuff below. It's still quite neat, but more impressive are the measurements that have a half foot of snow and still fairly high ratios - there you know that the crystals at the bottom of the stack are even holding that ratio with their friends on top. -When measuring these tiny amounts of fluff, I will generally stack several cores (often as many as 5 or 6) to ensure that I get a reasonable amount of liquid for analysis, and then divide the result appropriately. In the case of last night’s one, I stacked three cores from my 6.8 cm diameter cylinder and obtained 2.83 mL of liquid, which when one runs the math (well, thankfully when Excel runs the math) indicates 0.102 inches of liquid precipitation depending on how far I’m willing to push the significant digits based on the equipment. That one was actually pretty close to an even 0.01, which is nice, but the biggest rounding errors in the ratios actually come from rounding to move to the typical hundredths of an inch precipitation notation. If I measure something like 0.017 inches of liquid, that gets rounded to 0.02 inches. I calculate the ratio number/snow density off the rounded liquid number in the reports, otherwise what people see listed for snow and water amounts wouldn’t jive with the calculated ratio. For example, if an inch of snow is listed, and 0.05 inches of liquid are listed, the ratio should be a nice 20 to 1. Since I don’t display the actual liquid numbers before rounding in my report, which may have been 0.046 inches, displaying the ratio that comes from that (21.7 to 1) wouldn’t be consistent with the rest of what is reported. The bottom line is that the displayed ratios can be a little off for the smallest amounts of snow and liquid, but they’re generally OK. It’s minutiae anyway as far as practical weather is concerned, but it’s fun trying to measure and report it in the best possible way nonetheless. Right on cue I measured 0.6" new/0.01" w.e. this morning. Grand total from the clipper nickle and diming is 1.6" new snow with 0.04" w.e. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Hello everyone. New guy here after lurking for a few weeks. I'm two miles northwest of downtown Montpelier at 900' elevation. A solid inch and a half of new fluff here on Saturday after the eight inches from last Wednesday's storm. I'm pretty weather savvy compared to the general population but nowhere near as well informed as most of you guys. I hope to learn a lot (as I already have) from this forum and...not embarrass myself too much. Welcome, great to have another Central VT member on board. I ended up with a little over 2 inches of pure fluff overnight. Haven't checked anything else yet, so hopefully the mid-week storm has trended well for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CardinalWinds Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Welcome, great to have another Central VT member on board. I ended up with a little over 2 inches of pure fluff overnight . Haven't checked anything else yet, so hopefully the mid-week storm has trended well for us. Yes, quite a pleasant surprise overnight. A good two inches in the four hours leading up to the wind shift from S to NW at about 5am (I'm usually awake during the overnight hours). It was as much or a bit more than we got from the actual clipper. I see the 12Z NAM gives us a good little thump of straight snow at around 84 hours after the mixing issues should be over with. The other models not so much. I'm hoping this stays snow and sleet and doesn't go over to freezing rain. My driveway is pretty steep and the ZR is a nightmare at my house. Thanks for the welcome, btw. You too, MaineJayhawk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvysnow79 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Went skating at Lake Morey this afternoon, the trail is in great shape and the the lgt snow showers added to the experience. I am guessing they will start working on the rinks for the Vermont Pond Hockey Championship soon which will be held in two weeks. Sorry for low quality, taken with my phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Had 1.3" snow with 0.05" LE 5-8 PM last night, of course while I was driving to AUG and back. GYX latest AFD interesting, mentioning possibilities of 4-8" snow in places and 1/4-1/2" ice other places Tues/Wed. Fluffiest snow I've measured is 45:1, each time 4.5" snow with 0.10" LE, once in BGR and once in Gardiner. With 3" down in the BGR event, one could tell apart light and dark surfaces beneath the gossamer snow. That 0.7" with 0.01" LE is such a small amt; similar to what J.Spin noted, that 0.01 might'vebeen 0.014, for a 50:1 ratio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 4.5" storm total at my place on the Mountain Road in Stowe... however, the ski resort up on Mansfield got absolutely crushed in the last 24 hours. We measured 16" in spots on top of the denser storm snow from Wed/Thur. The 6-9" reported on the snow report this morning was way under-reported. The correct range is probably 10-16" from base to summit. The snow up top was ridiculously deep! I'll post some photos later, but almost 40" of snow at the summit in the past 7 days. Good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 16, 2011 Author Share Posted January 16, 2011 I'll post some photos later, but almost 40" of snow at the summit in the past 7 days. Good times. This is what 40 inches in a week looks like when you ski through it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsonsbuff Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Yeesh, great pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Nice rad cooling night. Already down to 14.5F here. 18z GFS MOS has a min/max/min over the next 36hrs of -4F/12F/-7F for CON. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Event totals: 4.7” Snow/0.15” L.E. Sunday 1/16/2011 4:00 P.M. update: After this morning’s update, we had some additional snowfall at the house in the morning. It was nothing too intense, but the fluffy flakes had piled up to about 0.7” by the time we headed up to the mountain around 9:00 A.M. In their morning report, the mountain reported 3 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, but I’d say that was a bit underreported as Powderfreak mentioned for Stowe. I did find about 3 to 4 new inches at the base of Timberline (~1,500’), but farther up on Spell Binder there were plenty of areas with 6 to 8 inches. It’s not bad to have a bit of underreporting though. It snowed some in the morning on the mountain, then it seemed like the sun was going to win out during the middle of the day as it poked through the clouds at times. As we moved into the afternoon though, it started to dump close to an inch per hour with huge upslope-style flakes, even with the sun still shining through the clouds. After a while though, the sun disappeared, much heavier clouds moved in, and the huge flakes redoubled their efforts. It was pretty amazing, considering the snow as supposed to taper off today. The skiing was really spectacular with all the new snow; we found areas with up to 30 inches of powder thanks to all the fluff that has been falling with the recent systems Some details from the 4:00 P.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: 21.6 F Sky: Partly Cloudy, Flurries Snow at the stake: 16.5 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahk_webstah Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Nice rad cooling night. Already down to 14.5F here. 18z GFS MOS has a min/max/min over the next 36hrs of -4F/12F/-7F for CON. Yes indeed...and then an inch plus qpf a few hours after we hit -7. Hmmmmmm.... Poke Poke NNE board. Might be a real big storm incoming that gets us all again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravitylover Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I used to like you guys ... This is what 40 inches in a week looks like when you ski through it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klw Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I ran into a ten mile band of snow on the drive back up to Peacham this evening. Coming back from Hanover. There was a dusting and snow coming down between Bradford and Wells River. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 A couple more photos of the forest today... Trees were absolutely caked in snow from the 12" that fell overnight... it must've been snowing pretty hard at times last night with an average rate of 1"/hr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 We're struggling, but trying to radiate now. Down to 1F. Looks like Tues may be mostly snow for a lot of us in NNE now. Hopefully we can rack up a solid 6-10", minimize some melting on Wednesday, and then strengthen the Fri event in order to really usher in the cold for the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsonsbuff Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 We're struggling, but trying to radiate now. Down to 1F. Looks like Tues may be mostly snow for a lot of us in NNE now. Hopefully we can rack up a solid 6-10", minimize some melting on Wednesday, and then strengthen the Fri event in order to really usher in the cold for the weekend. It's -14F! at KLEB currently... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaineJayhawk Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 -12.1F here. Thinking the cat will again politely decline the invitation to go outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Finally down to -1F here. Hopefully we get a nice drop spike before sunrise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Went skating at Lake Morey this afternoon, the trail is in great shape and the the lgt snow showers added to the experience. I am guessing they will start working on the rinks for the Vermont Pond Hockey Championship soon which will be held in two weeks. Sorry for low quality, taken with my phone. Ha-ha, nice shot man. You took that literally right in front of my parent's place. They're in Florida right now though! Anyway, -8 atm. Coldest morning of the season. More snow on the way too: WS Watches up. Man did the Pats suck last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitemountainhiker Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Winta' Stawm Waaaatches up Boy temps are all over the place this morning. I see a -14 in Leb, actually up to -9 now. But most of the wunderground unofficial obs are between 2 above and -5. This is why I never quite understood having an official recording station at an airport. I mean, who lives there? haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsonsbuff Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Winta' Stawm Waaaatches up Boy temps are all over the place this morning. I see a -14 in Leb, actually up to -9 now. But most of the wunderground unofficial obs are between 2 above and -5. This is why I never quite understood having an official recording station at an airport. I mean, who lives there? haha Stranded passengers? and we know a ton of those at KLEB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 coldest on the season so far -11 at the house, drove .2 mi down to town had -13. major powder pigging out the past 5 days. nice to see sleds again, feels like winter. I knew the Pats were doomed when Brady showed up with his balaclava on - they should have cut a hole in the back to let the locks out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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