NNE Spring

[J.Spin]

nice report J - I packed in the ski boots for the year so nice to see someone still jumping around up there

 

jay may get the snow, but it also gets the wind, it could probably easily claim wind capital of the east too.  Makes for great drift line skiing, wood filler, and great photo and vid ops like the meatheads showed.  The storms that fall straight could be counted on one hand by a blind table saw operator. 

 

Yeah, that wind is definitely nasty; I love Jay Peak, but wind is definitely one of the detractions for me.  I’ve suffered through some -80 F wind chills up on the peak in January and have no desire to go through that anymore.  Do you know how the winds are over in the area where they’re planning the West Bowl Expansion?  I hear that the quality of the snow over there is really good, sort of like André’s Paradise (I guess that’s the area they used to call Beyond Beaver Pond Glade).

[J.Spin]

I hadn’t posted April precipitation totals for our site yet, so I’m taking the opportunity to do that now.  One nice area of progress is that with five seasons of liquid in the data set now, I feel like I’m starting to get a reasonable monthly average for comparison.  Both snowfall and liquid came in below average for April:

 

April 2014                      Mean

Snow    4.4”                   5.8”

Liquid   3.56”                 4.69”

 

It sounds like temperatures were roughly similar to last April per the discussion by ORH and PF, and perhaps the lower precipitation may have even helped with snow preservation, but it wasn’t an overly impressive April for snowfall.  There were some smaller events like April 16^th:

 

 

…and April 27^th:

 

 

…but not quite like storms (or series of storms) we’ve had in some seasons such as 2007:

 

 

…or 2010:

 

 

…or 2012:

 

 

There are additional examples from April the past several seasons.  It’s those “cutoff season” storms that can really do it, but cutoff season isn’t as much fun if the storms don’t cut off and send in the moisture.  This wasn’t a bad April relative to some, but it certainly wasn’t a standout.

[wxeyeNH]

Early morning downpours brought beneficial soaking rain.  System total was 1.45".  Good soak for the lawn and gardens!  We hydroseeded the last part of our lawn last week.  Some damage with water flowing into my pond but not bad.  You can see the part hydroseeded on my webcam view below.  That should green quick this week.  Can still see the last of the snow patches on Ragged in the distance.  Spring has reached the highlands of Central NH!!

 

2 pictures below first one was 8 days ago, the second this AM

[powderfreak]

Amazing how fast green up occurrs...big difference in those images Gene.

[wxeyeNH]

Amazing how fast green up occurrs...big difference in those images Gene.

Powder,  I wonder if the between seasons, Spring and Fall go quicker as one gets closer to the poles?  I grew up in Maryland and it seemed spring and fall lasted for months.  Then moved to the Boston area and spring and fall where still substantial but somewhat shorter.  Up here it seems spring and fall are very short.  I know if you look at day lengths they increase/decrease substantially away from the poles where near the equator the day lengthens/shortens slower.   It must be true or perhaps living further inland makes the difference.  Anyhow just a perfect day outside except for the swarms of black flies.

 

Love my new husky 54" mower, just cut 4 acres.  Cuts at like 12mph.  60" deck would have been nicer but this machine is still great.

[powderfreak]

Powder, I wonder if the between seasons, Spring and Fall go quicker as one gets closer to the poles? I grew up in Maryland and it seemed spring and fall lasted for months. Then moved to the Boston area and spring and fall where still substantial but somewhat shorter. Up here it seems spring and fall are very short. I know if you look at day lengths they increase/decrease substantially away from the poles where near the equator the day lengthens/shortens slower. It must be true or perhaps living further inland makes the difference. Anyhow just a perfect day outside except for the swarms of black flies.

Love my new husky 54" mower, just cut 4 acres. Cuts at like 12mph. 60" deck would have been nicer but this machine is still great.

I bet what you are saying is true...the daylight hours change more rapidly, that has to do something with it. The most extreme seasonal changes are away from the equator where it's year round summer...so it makes sense that it happens quickly once one moves north. The vegetation has probably adapted to green up quickly in the colder climes in order to make the most of the growing season...they are opportunists.

[powderfreak]

Last night's rain totals...now that's a widespread soaking.

[tamarack]

1.34" in my gauge, but up to 3.4" in the mts, such that the Kennebec is slightly above flood stage in Skowhegan this morning. Route 27 in Carrabasset was blocked for a short time by a landslide, probably in the winding stretch between the Kingfield line and the CV airport.

[dendrite]

A relatively warm 42.8F this morning...down the road at the Winni River site it hit 41F. As usual, Bear Brook is the Merrimack County rad cold spot with 37F and CON had 39F. Coldest I could find in NH outside of the rockpile was 34F at 1st Lake.

[powderfreak]

ASOS lows in this area...

BTV 40F

MVL 35F

MPV 36F

1V4 42F

Chilly night in the high elevations with temps at freezing and wind chills in the upper teens at MMNV1.

Looks like SLK took home the northeast sweepstakes with 25F.

[wxeyeNH]

Here is a snap shot of Lopstick Lodge webcam on First Conn. Lake.  Looks like ice out is getting closer unless that is just the wind blowing making the lake look like there is ice in it.  I have not looked at the cam in awhile.  Looks like greenup has made it up to the highlands on the Canadian boarder.

[dendrite]

Avg May monthly max/min for here is 67/43. So far today is at 66.8/42.8. I guess this is as close to an "average" May day as you can get (temp wise).

[SJonesWX]

Here is a snap shot of Lopstick Lodge webcam on First Conn. Lake.  Looks like ice out is getting closer unless that is just the wind blowing making the lake look like there is ice in it.  I have not looked at the cam in awhile.  Looks like greenup has made it up to the highlands on the Canadian boarder.

i think i read on their facebook page that ice out was a couple weeks ago.

[J.Spin]

We were back on Mansfield for turns yesterday, so I’ll pass along some snowpack updates and pictures.  According to the Co-Op data, natural snowpack was at 18 inches as of yesterday afternoon.  Slope-wise, for consistent coverage on Nosedive, it really looked like you had to get into that more northerly-facing terrain on the upper half of the mountain, but once you’re up there, the snowpack looks pretty nice based on yesterday’s post from ski.poet.iks.  For best coverage right from the base elevations, it seemed like North Slope was the way to go, and that’s where we spent our time.  There are some gaps in coverage below the junction with Crossover at ~1,800’, but it gets better above there, and you can head up to almost the top of the Mountain Triple Chair at ~2,700’ before you run into another notable gap.  I heard that Sunrise had some really nice snow from a skier we met, but we didn’t get to check it out.  I’ve added a few shots below, and the full report and photos are at our website.

 

 

 

 

As the ski season on Mansfield starts to wind down, it’s firing up on the Mt. Washington Snowfields – the Mt. Washington Auto Road just opened to the summit yesterday, and coverage was looking really good as of Tuesday.

[Hitman]

http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/05/el-nino-2014-refresher/371188/

[Nittany88]

Umm so about that sunset tonight...

 

[powderfreak]

Nice J.Spin! I've been traveling a bit this month and only in town here and there, so haven't gotten up as much as I'd like, but I heard Nosedive is skiable from the "Shambles Turn" on up (that big sweeping turn at 2,500ft above the runout to the Midway/National intersection; got the name from the old ski races when the racers would be in "shambles" by that point). Nice to see the opening route holding in (North Slope/Lord) all these months later.

[powderfreak]

http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/05/el-nino-2014-refresher/371188/

Warmer and wetter can be much snowier for the mountains. I wonder if we see a bunch of elevational events...or a winter where the low elevation snow isn't representative of the high elevation snow (ie it's a larger than normal difference).

[Hitman]

Warmer and wetter can be much snowier for the mountains. I wonder if we see a bunch of elevational events...or a winter where the low elevation snow isn't representative of the high elevation snow (ie it's a larger than normal difference).

The article says that we haven't had an El Niño since '04 and before that '97. Is that true or could they be talking about a strong one?

Anyway, too early to start speculating about next winter.

[powderfreak]

The article says that we haven't had an El Niño since '04 and before that '97. Is that true or could they be talking about a strong one?

Anyway, too early to start speculating about next winter.

A stronger Niño like 97-98 would be welcomed for the mountains. Moist winter means snowfall.

That winter looks pretty good except record heat in March shut it down early.

But for the Mansfield Co-Op at the summit, it recorded 260" that winter which is big for that station. It sounds paltry, but in the context of this past winter they recorded 169" (J.Spin in Waterbury comes close to beating the coop some years despite the 3,500ft elevation difference), and in 97-98 it had almost 100-more inches find it's way into the 8-inch diameter precip gauge. I don't want to say it snowed that much more because who knows, but that much more snow found it's way into the precip can and was there at 4pm in the afternoon each day. Regardless, snow depths show that was a decent winter in the mountains.

[borderwx]

Yeah, that wind is definitely nasty; I love Jay Peak, but wind is definitely one of the detractions for me.  I’ve suffered through some -80 F wind chills up on the peak in January and have no desire to go through that anymore.  Do you know how the winds are over in the area where they’re planning the West Bowl Expansion?  I hear that the quality of the snow over there is really good, sort of like André’s Paradise (I guess that’s the area they used to call Beyond Beaver Pond Glade).

Hey J-  same story, get down off the ridge and its fine, heavy deposits and lots of deep to ski.  Its wicked short though and they will hack it up to make it skiable for new skiers.  it is still a ways away though, be happy to take a tour with you, there are similar snow cliates with longer decents nearby.

[powderfreak]

BTV says some rain on the way.

[powderfreak]

I hadn’t posted April precipitation totals for our site yet, so I’m taking the opportunity to do that now.  One nice area of progress is that with five seasons of liquid in the data set now, I feel like I’m starting to get a reasonable monthly average for comparison.  Both snowfall and liquid came in below average for April:

 

April 2014                      Mean

Snow    4.4”                   5.8”

Liquid   3.56”                 4.69”

 

It sounds like temperatures were roughly similar to last April per the discussion by ORH and PF, and perhaps the lower precipitation may have even helped with snow preservation, but it wasn’t an overly impressive April for snowfall. 

 

…or 2010:

 

 

 

There are additional examples from April the past several seasons.  It’s those “cutoff season” storms that can really do it, but cutoff season isn’t as much fun if the storms don’t cut off and send in the moisture.  This wasn’t a bad April relative to some, but it certainly wasn’t a standout.

 

 

Just yesterday I came across some of my photos from April 2010 (that 27-28th storm)...and man was that a phenomenal amount of snowfall along the Spine for the end of April. 

 

This April was certainly nothing to write home about for snow, but to be honest, I didn't even notice after the sweet March we endured.  In fact, I remember in April just wishing for sunny and warm days to enjoy some real spring skiing, as snowpack and getting to the end of the lift serviced ski season for most resorts was not going to be an issue.  I always get that yearning for the BBQ'ing in the parking lot, skiing in a t-shirt while ripping steep bump runs...so the lack of a real pow day in April wasn't missed too much (I say "real pow day" as in like 6+).

 

Anyway, back to April 28th 2010, I measured an even 20" at Stowe in the 2,500-3,000ft range I believe...just an awesome amount of snow only a couple days prior to May 1st.  That storm was awesome for how crappy the snowfall had been during the winter itself, only to throw a bomb at us when we least expected it.

 

 

 

 

 

Good times.

[mreaves]

BTV says some rain on the way.

 

BTV is doing a killer job with their graphics and new web page.

[powderfreak]

BTV is doing a killer job with their graphics and new web page.

 

I love their social media graphics...especially their FB page.  Prior to winter storms or snowfalls last winter it was great because they always had those multi-graphic synopsis of their thinking/forecast.  Their office has always been great with creating graphics, even years ago when most others were using those very pixel-like graphics for snowfall or weather, BTV seemed to have a much better presentation and smoothed graphics.  They were the first office in the northeast region that I know of to really go out with the snowfall maps accompanying the winter storm statements years ago...however the local climate here probably dictated it more than other areas of the northeast where snowfall and precip is so terrain oriented, and county-wide forecasts can't capture that.  How do you tell Chittenden County residents that snowfall will range from partly cloudy skies with stars out in one side, with up to 20" and a blizzard on the otherside?

 

I'm still not a huge fan of the new web page but I know they had no choice...it was more just knowing where everything was located on the old site...BTV seemed to have more locally created sub-pages than other offices, but I'm finding them again and most of them have showed up on the bottom banner of the new page.   And I really liked having all the main reporting stations most recent observations listed right on the home page. 

 

One other thing I missed, was when you clicked on local observations, you would get this page.  This one was much better because if you get a snow squall at 2:25pm with +SN, but by 2:53pm its 10sm vis again, you'll never even see it on the standard NWS obs page.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?table=1&banner=off&sid=KMVL

 

Instead, now you get the standard NWS page which I'm not a fan of because you'll miss a lot of observations by only seeing the hourly observations.  None of the SPECI obs seem to show up here during changing weather.

http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KMVL.html

[Nittany88]

I love their social media graphics...especially their FB page.  Prior to winter storms or snowfalls last winter it was great because they always had those multi-graphic synopsis of their thinking/forecast.  Their office has always been great with creating graphics, even years ago when most others were using those very pixel-like graphics for snowfall or weather, BTV seemed to have a much better presentation and smoothed graphics.  They were the first office in the northeast region that I know of to really go out with the snowfall maps accompanying the winter storm statements years ago...however the local climate here probably dictated it more than other areas of the northeast where snowfall and precip is so terrain oriented, and county-wide forecasts can't capture that.  How do you tell Chittenden County residents that snowfall will range from partly cloudy skies with stars out in one side, with up to 20" and a blizzard on the otherside?

 

I'm still not a huge fan of the new web page but I know they had no choice...it was more just knowing where everything was located on the old site...BTV seemed to have more locally created sub-pages than other offices, but I'm finding them again and most of them have showed up on the bottom banner of the new page.   And I really liked having all the main reporting stations most recent observations listed right on the home page. 

 

One other thing I missed, was when you clicked on local observations, you would get this page.  This one was much better because if you get a snow squall at 2:25pm with +SN, but by 2:53pm its 10sm vis again, you'll never even see it on the standard NWS obs page.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?table=1&banner=off&sid=KMVL

 

Instead, now you get the standard NWS page which I'm not a fan of because you'll miss a lot of observations by only seeing the hourly observations.  None of the SPECI obs seem to show up here during changing weather.

http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KMVL.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.weather.gov/btv/observations

 

These should still go to that mesowest page.

[powderfreak]

http://www.weather.gov/btv/observations

These should still go to that mesowest page.

Aha! Awesome. That's exactly what I was looking for. As it is I've just got them all individually linked but that's perfect. Thanks dude! Those meso west obs are the best pages for observations. They have everything, even the snowfall and depth for places like BTV that report them.

[mreaves]

 

 

 

http://www.weather.gov/btv/observations

 

These should still go to that mesowest page.

 

 

Aha! Awesome. That's exactly what I was looking for. As it is I've just got them all individually linked but that's perfect. Thanks dude! Those meso west obs are the best pages for observations. They have everything, even the snowfall and depth for places like BTV that report them.

Yep, that's the ticket.  I guess we just need to take the time to look around a bit

[wxeyeNH]

Just a perfect weather day.   Love living in NNE.    

[powderfreak]

Apparently this house is up for bank auction...man it would be amazing living on Mount Mansfield at like 1,700ft. That is like a 200" per year snowfall residence haha.