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NNE Late Winter - Maple Sugaring and Soft Snow


mreaves

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It has started as all snow above 2,500ft. Rain below that.

 

Current Temps on the Hill... Lincoln Peak Mt. Ellen Base: 42 °F Base: 40 °F Mid: 38 °F Mid: 38 °F Summit: 32 °F Summit: 32 °F

 

I just checked on the Bolton Valley Weather Station at 2,100’ to find that it was reading 33.9 F, and the Bolton Valley Web Cam at that elevation shows that it’s snowing.  There’s plenty of moisture upstream on the radar, so presumably that bodes well for some accumulations going forward.  Accumulations are supposed to drop all the way to the valley bottoms tonight anyway according to the BTV NWS forecasts.

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AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BURLINGTON VT

416 PM EDT THU MAR 26 2015

 

.NEAR TERM /UNTIL 8 AM FRIDAY MORNING/...

AS OF 415 PM EDT THURSDAY...POSITIVE TILT TROUGH MOVING INTO THE REGION TONIGHT IS CONTRIBUTING TO WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE AREA. THE PRECIPITATION IS MAINLY IN THE FORM OF RAIN WITH SNOW GENERALLY ABOVE 2000 FEET. THE WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION SHOULD CONTINUE THROUGH AT LEAST MIDNIGHT BEFORE GRADUALLY TAPERING OFF. SNOW LEVELS WILL ALSO BE COMING DOWN AFTER MIDNIGHT WHICH COULD BRING SOME VERY MINOR ACCUMULATIONS TO THE LOWER ELEVATIONS...BUT STILL LOOKING AT A SOLID 2 TO 4 INCHES ABOVE 2000 FEET WITH HIGHER AMOUNTS NEAR THE SUMMITS OF THE NORTHERN ADIRONDACKS AND GREEN MOUNTAINS.

 

1" as of 3:45pm at 3,000ft and above up this way.

 

I just checked the BTV NWS point forecast for Mansfield at the upper lift terminal elevations, and it’s got roughly 4-8” through tomorrow, which wouldn’t be too surprising with an inch already down and all the moisture upstream.  We’ll see how it goes, but it’s looking like it’s worth at least prepping the skis.

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I just checked on the Bolton Valley Weather Station at 2,100’ to find that it was reading 33.9 F, and the Bolton Valley Web Cam at that elevation shows that it’s snowing.  There’s plenty of moisture upstream on the radar, so presumably that bodes well for some accumulations going forward.  Accumulations are supposed to drop all the way to the valley bottoms tonight anyway according to the BTV NWS forecasts.

 

Oh wow, nice.  Snow levels dropping then. 

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3" up above 3,000ft last night.  0.3" at the base.

 

Its really dense snow, and looks and skis like 6" up there...but alas, its only 3".

 

 

 

 

For ski areas at the summit we have:

 

Jay...4"

Smuggs...2"

Here with 3"

Bolton...5"

MRG...4"

Sugarbush...6"

Killington...0"

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3" up above 3,000ft last night.  0.3" at the base.

 

Its really dense snow, and looks and skis like 6" up there...but alas, its only 3".

 

For ski areas at the summit we have:

 

Jay...4"

Smuggs...2"

Here with 3"

Bolton...5"

MRG...4"

Sugarbush...6"

Killington...0"

 

I didn’t quite have enough time to get out for turns this morning, but it was great to check in at Bolton and see the 5” reported.  It’s been snowing here in Burlington most of the morning, which is a great sign for the mountains of course.

 

I’ve updated PF’s list above with the usual north to south listing of available snowfall totals for this storm from the Vermont ski areas.  There are a couple updates from what I see, but there’s still not much reported in the south.

 

Jay Peak: 4”

Burke: 3”

Smuggler’s Notch: 4”

Stowe: 3”

Bolton Valley: 5”

Mad River Glen: 4”

Sugarbush: 6”

Middlebury: 3”

Pico: 2”

Killington: 2”

Okemo: T”

Bromley: 0”

Magic Mountain: 1”

Stratton: 0”

Mount Snow: 0”

 

It’s looking good up north with continued snowfall today though, and although I was initially concerned about highs getting up well into the 30s F, the forecasts I’m seeing now are showing sub-freezing highs pretty low in elevation.  That could make for some continued great skiing tomorrow as the cold air continues to move in.

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That skied pretty well!!

 

Sunday into monday looks like another elevation dependent system swings through with 1-3"  and then monday night as the -10c isotherm passes we could get one of those moist farts = 10" at stowe kinda mornings.  Not too bad for the start of spring. 

 

Though the "its cold enough to make mtn snow" looks to end after that with two nothern stream events after that. Doubt they both stay "warm"....bet one is pretty snow above 2500ft. 

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That skied pretty well!!

 

I sort of botched that report this morning.  Had some conflicting snowfall reports this morning so I went low, as that's my SOP.  When it doubt, go low until can prove otherwise. 

 

So I took a few laps off the Quad and was generally finding 3-4" via random assessment.  It took me a little while to get to the Gondola and so when I finally got to the snowstake up there it was around 10am.

 

Turns out there was 5" on the snow board that I cleared yesterday just for this reason, haha.  So I take responsibility for that one this morning.  But when I'm wrong, its always in the low direction ;)

 

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Question for OceanStWx.... will gyx be continuing the lake forecast model this spring?

 

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/gyx/LakeModels/CG3/

 

Barring some unforeseen computing issue it will be back up and running this warm season.

 

It takes a long, long time to run such a high resolution domain (so as to resolve the lake bathymetry) and we disable it in the winter so we can still use the wave model for our near-shore waters.

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eek, what I don't understand is that sleet forms when there is warm air above and a cold layer below.  We see that all the time.  Why I got all excited is there is no cold air all the way up to 6000 feet, Mt Washington is 28F. It's not like we have a low dewpoint either.  I didn't hear of any sleet reports and it didn't seem convective so that is why I posted it, otherwise would have not given it a second thought!  Now I can go back to watching my snow fog and waiting for a patch of grass to appear!

There was a very dry layer with low wetbulbs up in the mid levels. This helped turn the precip back to frozen well aloft and allowed the pellets to reach the ground with temps in the 40s. I think most of us had pingers that day.
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Well as I thought this winter just kind of fizzled as opposed to going out in any memorable fashion. BTV's climo shows the departure now only 4 inches above normal on the season and 3 inches behind last year at this time. So overall it would go down as just a run of the mill winter but certainly not bad. It will be more remembered for its consistency in the mountains for skiing I think.

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Barring some unforecast burst of precip today or tomorrow, this year's 2-month Feb-Mar will be the driest of my 17 years here, with just under 2.7" which is 40% of avg.  2nd and 3rd place are 2012 and 2006, both dead ratters here for snow.  This winter is two storms (Nov 26-27 and Jan 27-28) away from approaching DR status, but instead will rank 5th or 6th best in my (mostly) subjective grading system.

 

And this month, even the nickel-dime events are favoring SNE instead of N-D kingdom NNE, at least compared to the eastern part of NNE

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I'll grade this winter overall as B+/A-. Total snow was only marginally better than last year. What stands out for me was sustained cold and longevity of deep snow pack.

About the same for me.  For my purposes (riding snowmobiles) it was near perfect.  There were a couple of minor glitches:

  • The stupid Grinch storm.  Man that sucker always knows how to put a damper on the mood.
  • No real events after mid February.  Good thing there was sustained cold or the trails would have gone very quickly.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the winter.  Our snowmobile club groomed from Opening day on and other than a few thin spots after the Grinch, our trails were very good all year.  As I said though, it was good for my purposes.  I could see how someone could be underwhelmed by the lack of sizeable events up here.

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About the same for me.  For my purposes (riding snowmobiles) it was near perfect.  There were a couple of minor glitches:

  • The stupid Grinch storm.  Man that sucker always knows how to put a damper on the mood.
  • No real events after mid February.  Good thing there was sustained cold or the trails would have gone very quickly.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the winter.  Our snowmobile club groomed from Opening day on and other than a few thin spots after the Grinch, our trails were very good all year.  As I said though, it was good for my purposes.  I could see how someone could be underwhelmed by the lack of sizeable events up here.

I would give it a B. Yeah the Grinch Storm was absolutely horrible.

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I'll grade this winter overall as B+/A-. Total snow was only marginally better than last year. What stands out for me was sustained cold and longevity of deep snow pack.

 

Sustained cold, agree, though grinchy Dec means DJFM will be about 0.6F milder than last year.  Snowpack - good but well short of last year.  My 21" OG this morning is 13" less than 3/30/14.  Other comparisons:

 

Parameter  2014    2015

 

Max depth.....46".....31"

SDDs..........2,836...2,150 to date, will probably end 2300-2400.  (Avg is 1700, so still good)

Days w/20"+....72.....62 to date, will end at 63-65 unless we get surprised.  20" is my "serious snowpack" threshold.

Days w/30"+....25......5....30" is where memorable snow depth begins (for me).  This is the 6th winter of 17 to reach the mark.

 

The big Nov and Jan storms, each biggest for the respective month here, add value; the warm wet Dec and long non-snowy part of Jan detract, as does the current two-month "drought", both for snow and overall precip.  Barring something spectacular, winter will grade at B-, still solidly above avg. 

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Pretty impressive cold start to 2015 though. I'm running about -7F for JFM. It's going to be tough to run a +21F summation for the next 9 months to bring the calendar year to normal. Apr-Dec 2012 pulled it off here though...that was about a +22F summation for the final 9 mo.

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Pretty impressive cold start to 2015 though. I'm running about -7F for JFM. It's going to be tough to run a +21F summation for the next 9 months to bring the calendar year to normal. Apr-Dec 2012 pulled it off here though...that was about a +22F summation for the final 9 mo.

 

2015 thru yesterday is -7.65 compared to my 17-yr avg, probably closer to -6 for Farmington coop 1981-2010.  For the 85 days Dec 30-Mar 24, my avg was -8.10, a respectable departure for that long a period.

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