J.Spin Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Event Totals: 0.5" Snow/0.02" L.E. There's been light snow here at the house this morning, and it's continuing with what looks like some westerly flow: Details from the 7:00 A.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 0.5 inches New Liquid: 0.02 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 25.0 Snow Density: 4.0% H2O Temperature: 26.8 F Sky: Light Snow (5-12 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 1.5" The Vermont ski areas have also picked up some snow overnight of course; Smuggler’s Notch topped the list with 5 inches. As the north to south listing of available overnight/24-hour snowfall totals shows, the snow fell in the northern half of the state, with no resorts from the Pico/Killington area southward reporting any new snow. Jay Peak: 3” Burke: 3” Smuggler’s Notch: 5” Stowe: 4” Bolton Valley: 2” Mad River Glen: 1” Sugarbush: 2” Pico: 0” Killington: 0” Okemo: 0” Bromley: 0” Magic Mountain: 0” Stratton: 0” Mount Snow: 0” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Its still nuking... 5.5" at 3,000ft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klw Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 We had 2.0 new as of 7 this morning. Looks like it has stopped now in St. J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Its still nuking... 5.5" at 3,000ft. Thanks for the update PF, that's starting to get in the range where it can make a difference, so it's got me thinking about making a test visit up to the mountain – I can see big fat flakes falling on the Bolton Valley Web Cam even at the base: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Yeah J.Spin...its starting to make a difference up high. Really fun on the groomed stuff though with 4-5" on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whineminster Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 wow what a world of difference....its bright and sunny down here, but looks like a blizzard up there.... I'm thinking of heading up and skiing Cannon this weekend, but my question for you northern skiers are: Do you think the storm will remain all snow up there, or close to it? Think the conditions and the amount of snow received will be worth the trip and the $70 ticket price? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyewall Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Bolton is getting hammered good! I love to see that because after going yesterday I can tell you they really need it! I wish I could get back up there today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Looks like its tapering off and I'll hold with 5" up high unless we can get another half inch or so to get a solid 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyewall Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Looks like its tapering off and I'll hold with 5" up high unless we can get another half inch or so to get a solid 6. Coupled with the weekend storm it looks good for net gain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Coupled with the weekend storm it looks good for net gain Yeah although that denser synoptic snow and some mix to rain will absolutely squash this 5" of pow. Our usual arctic boundary coupled with upslope 30:1 ratio stuff...just squeezing literally every molecule of water out of an already dry atmosphere, haha. In fact CoCoRAHS has some obs like 4.0" of snow on 0.08" of liquid type stuff...then on Saturday night we'll get less snow on like 5 times the liquid, lol with like 3.5" on 0.5" of LE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 You can see the CoCoRAHS reports are all in the vicinity of a tenth of an inch to produce 3-4" of snow. Arctic dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Man huge accident with dozens of vehicles, fires, you name it on 93 in Ashland NH from squalls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wx2fish Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Man huge accident with dozens of vehicles, fires, you name it on 93 in Ashland NH from squalls. What a disaster that's gonna be closed for hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Snowglobe morning here. 1" as of 7am and just about another inch since and still snowing. Man huge accident with dozens of vehicles, fires, you name it on 93 in Ashland NH from squalls. Just caught wind of that on a local email listserv. Someone there posted that there was a 50-100 car pile-up. WMUR link: http://www.wmur.com/news/50100-car-pileup-in-ashalnd/30498106 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I posted the Plymouth cam loop in the banter thread. Pretty impressive squalls for a few hours this morning. Just some flurries and brief -SHSN here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 5.5" as of hours ago, probably near or over 6" now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 5.5" as of hours ago, probably near or over 6" now. nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Temps at MPV steadily dropping. 24° when I got up this morning, 19° now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I'm 4 miles west-south-west of Rt 93 where the accident was. Impressive squall with very sharp south cut off edge. 1/4 mile down my road to the south got nothing. I got a quick whiteout 1/4". Drove 2 miles NE using back roads and measured 2 1/2" and that was 3 hours after the squall came through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Today really showed the gradient in Stowe between the mountain and village. 0.2" at 750ft and around 6" at 3000ft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Yeah J.Spin...its starting to make a difference up high. Really fun on the groomed stuff though with 4-5" on top. Bolton is getting hammered good! I love to see that because after going yesterday I can tell you they really need it! I wish I could get back up there today. With the way it was snowing and the accumulations we've been seeing in the higher elevations, I decided to head up to the mountain for at least a couple of runs, so I can pass along some Bolton Valley updates. The short version is that it's just like PF said – this new snow is making a notable difference up high. I'd say you could find plenty of areas with 4-6" in the higher elevations, and it's fluffy, so it's far from a full resurfacing, but it's great on the groomed runs. I found areas with up to 9" of accumulation in places that like to collect the snow, and you could really start to feel the girth of the accumulation at those levels. In general though, you want to be the first person through the untracked snow because it's fluff; it doesn’t hold up to more than a skier or two and you're down to the old base. For those wanting some additional detail, I've got that below: The snowfall had really picked up here at the house when I was leaving this morning around 9:00 A.M. or so, and there was a steady moderate snow coming down with some decent dendrites and clumps of flakes. It was super fluffy snow, but snowing at a pace that you'd need to use the wipers on the car to clear it off when the vehicle wasn't in motion. The snow continued at a steady pace right along through Bolton Flats, and visibility was around ¼ mile. Snowfall intensity was similar up at 2,100' in the Bolton Valley Village, and a quick check in the parking lot there revealed a couple inches of fluff. I rode the Vista Quad, and aside from the new snow, you could see that Spillway on that front face was just a glaciated mess of windswept ice. I don't believe it was open, but it's not something people would really want to ski anyway under the conditions. Getting off at the Vista Summit (~3,150'), I went straight ahead into the open area there to get a depth measurement in the undisturbed snow, and found 4-5". I descended via Alta Vista, and there was some excellent snow along the skier's left where it usually settles in. I measured 5-6" there, and between that and extra snow that people had pushed over there from their skiing, buoyancy was good and I was getting mostly bottomless turns with just my midfats. The snow depth gradually tapered down as you descended to the lower elevations, but I headed over toward Wilderness and finished off my run on Lower Turnpike, and even 3-4" was enough for bottomless turns on that pitch. The Wilderness Chair was running, so I took a run on that as well. Up top there I found 6-7" of fluff in those areas out of the wind, and I measured 9" on the corner of Peggy Dow’s at that entrance to the Bolton Valley Backcountry Network. You really wanted groomed terrain for the best turns though – off piste is certainly skiable in terms of base depths, and people were skiing it, but this snow is just too fluffy to get things bottomless on a subsurface that's not groomed. Also, you really don’t want more than second tracks for decent powder turns because the snow doesn’t have the staying power. Anyway, it’s a good step in the right direction; based on the consistency of that underlying surface I saw, I wouldn’t have wanted to ski prior to this latest dump. I added a few images from this morning below: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Event totals: 1.1” Snow/0.03" L.E. I ran a 1:00 P.M. analysis this afternoon, and I'd say that's it for now in terms of snow since it's down to just flurries. Details from the 1:00 P.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 0.6 inches New Liquid: 0.01 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 60.0 Snow Density: 1.7% H2O Temperature: 27.9 F Sky: Flurries Snow at the stake: 1.5" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I see that Winter Storm Watches are up in the area now from the BTV NWS – they're generally east of the Greens with some off in the Adirondacks. Anticipated accumulations seem to be in the 3-5" range for the most part, although I have seen 4-8" from some of the local media and there are a few pockets of 6-8" shading shown on the NWS projected accumulations map in the higher elevations of Washington and Lamoille counties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Good skiing today thanks to the arctic front. 8" in the past 72 hours, 6" past 24 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 I'm always amazed at how elevation dependent the meso-scale snow can be. Its not a function of temperatures, but rather dry air. It can be pounding huge flakes up at 3,000ft+ and just absolutely dumping 1-2"/hr while down at 1,500ft and below its only 0.5"/hr with dry air eating away at the dendrites. Then down in town that turns into 3sm -SN with tiny mostly evaporated flakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitman Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 I measured 6" at 3500'. Great day. Blower. Need some sense base snow to bond with the crust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I haven't seen any changes to the BTV NWS projected accumulations map for the upcoming storm, but the Winter Storm Watches have been converted to Winter Weather Advisories: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klw Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 We had 2.0 new as of 7 this morning. Looks like it has stopped now in St. J. Another .6 during the day at the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 0Z NAM pings me between 27-28hr after about 0.30-0.35" liquid. That sounds hyperspecific (and it is), but you get the idea. The GFS has been holding onto snow for a couple of hours longer which makes a big difference with the strong omega coming through during that time. I think taking a 10:1 from both models gives a decent range for this area...i.e. about 3-5". N. Conway-IZG and NE look good for the 6"+ totals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanStWx Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 0Z NAM pings me between 27-28hr after about 0.30-0.35" liquid. That sounds hyperspecific (and it is), but you get the idea. The GFS has been holding onto snow for a couple of hours longer which makes a big difference with the strong omega coming through during that time. I think taking a 10:1 from both models gives a decent range for this area...i.e. about 3-5". N. Conway-IZG and NE look good for the 6"+ totals. Never want to wake up to cars on fire because of your forecast. Hoping I do a little better with this storm than I did with the squalls. Squalls are tough though. If you put +SW (heavy snow showers) in the grids you get "heavy snow" wording for the entire day. I know BTV has been pushing for a change so that +SW would be some sort of squally wording instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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