Tacoma Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 guys we could have snow in the mtns. wed. night thursday time frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nchighcountrywx Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Warming up , up top: Effects of pattern shift showing up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavarreDon Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Pretty snow shot from space! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirNelson39 Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 That Hickory measurement is a little suspect. We had lots of sleet that really cut into the snow totals. MBY measured 5 inches of snow/sleet combination. Yeah not sure where he gets his measurement for some places. In boone he has 10-12....I'm in the middle of Boone and had 14-15" but I also measured very often because of the sleet and zr compaction at times during the storm. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 For some reason, the storm total on Mt. Mitchell was lowered from 66 down to 57 inches. Storm total in Smokies lowered as well. Somebody did make it part way up my mountain with 4 wheel drive and chains to the 5400 foot level where it became impossible. 10 to 15 inches was still on the roads with lots of drifts. Somebody else will try to reach the summit on Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxBlue Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 For some reason, the storm total on Mt. Mitchell was lowered from 66 down to 57 inches. Storm total in Smokies lowered as well. Somebody did make it part way up my mountain with 4 wheel drive and chains to the 5400 foot level where it became impossible. 10 to 15 inches was still on the roads with lots of drifts. Somebody else will try to reach the summit on Saturday. Because the first 8 inches of snow wasn't part of the main storm. That came in the system before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavarreDon Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 GSP snowfall total map: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Because the first 8 inches of snow wasn't part of the main storm. That came in the system before. Thanks! That would explain it. I was also wandering how LeConte did in the last storm. For some reason, it appears the Lodge went off the air and stopped posting daily weather reports online during the storm. I suspect a power outage. http://www.highonleconte.com/daily-posts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wncsnow Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Looks like i win our little competition on which mtn top would receive the most snowfall! Mitchell just rakes up with SE Flow due to the orientation of the range, and they got smoked with the main band from the ULL Friday night.. Quite the interesting micro-climates in the mountains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wncsnow Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Looks like a decent shot of NWFS for the mountains after the fropa later this week 1-2 favored areas like beech mtn, will also be some after the cutter next week. Ski resorts will enjoy it and if the cold pattern returns (which looks likely) some areas may actually come close to attaining seasonal averages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Rather dramatic rescue on Mt. Pisgah: http://themountaineer.villagesoup.com/p/daring-mount-pisgah-rescue-ends-well/1473954 Note that there was still 2 to 3 feet up there as of Monday at the elevation of the Parkway which is well below the elevation of the mountain top. Note that it took 6 hours to reach him. I am surprised he lived. One doesn't want to get stranded up on a mountain top this time of year! (Mt. Pisgah is a few hundred feet lower down than my Mtn top. I recall that I spent the night up on my mtn and got a surprise storm of about an inch of freezing rain instead of the predicted few inches of snow which completely encasing my car as I slept making it difficult even to get out of it. I was too terrified to attempt to leave so called a friend from Maggie Valley for help. He and son came up in a truck only to get stuck in the driveway. They ended up walking up the mountain to reach me. I ended up having to help them get unstuck as they were blocking the only way out. However, I did find out that it is much easier to go down hill than to come up...ended up being able to just do a controlled slide all the way back down the mountain...sort of like sledding! ) Note: Here is another article about the Mt. Mitchell storm. 4 to 5" snow per hour rates were noted. http://wsav.com/2016/01/24/winter-storm-drops-66-inches-of-snow-in-north-carolina-breaks-state-record/ They mention a 60 inch snow total back in April, 1987..which I believe was actually recorded on Mt. Pisgah. However, I read that a careful analysis of that total debunked it. http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/anniversary-of-freak-five-feet-of-nc-snow/18831 Reading further, Newfound Gap at the NC/TN did record 60" a few years earlier in 1987. This suggests that the official storm total of 57" at Mt. Mitchell won't end up being the biggest snowstorm in NC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PisgahNCWeather Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Rather dramatic rescue on Mt. Pisgah: http://themountaineer.villagesoup.com/p/daring-mount-pisgah-rescue-ends-well/1473954 Note that there was still 2 to 3 feet up there as of Monday at the elevation of the Parkway which is well below the elevation of the mountain top. Note that it took 6 hours to reach him. I am surprised he lived. One doesn't want to get stranded up on a mountain top this time of year! (Mt. Pisgah is a few hundred feet lower down than my Mtn top. I recall that I spent the night up on my mtn and got a surprise storm of about an inch of freezing rain instead of the predicted few inches of snow which completely encasing my car as I slept making it difficult even to get out of it. I was too terrified to attempt to leave so called a friend from Maggie Valley for help. He and son came up in a truck only to get stuck in the driveway. They ended up walking up the mountain to reach me. I ended up having to help them get unstuck as they were blocking the only way out. However, I did find out that it is much easier to go down hill than to come up...ended up being able to just do a controlled slide all the way back down the mountain...sort of like sledding! ) Note: Here is another article about the Mt. Mitchell storm. 4 to 5" snow per hour rates were noted. http://wsav.com/2016/01/24/winter-storm-drops-66-inches-of-snow-in-north-carolina-breaks-state-record/ They mention a 60 inch snow total back in April, 1987..which I believe was actually recorded on Mt. Pisgah. However, I read that a careful analysis of that total debunked it. http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/anniversary-of-freak-five-feet-of-nc-snow/18831 Reading further, Newfound Gap at the NC/TN did record 60" a few years earlier in 1987. This suggests that the official storm total of 57" at Mt. Mitchell won't end up being the biggest snowstorm in NC. Believe the record was 62 inches on Mt. Pisgah in May 1992. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Believe the record was 62 inches on Mt. Pisgah in May 1992. It may have only been about 36" although the review suggested perhaps as much as 50" on the summit. Not quite sure what may have happened but it might have simply been a case where the observer was periodically cleaning off the snow board...and the wind drifted extra snow back on to it. Easy to happen when the board is surround by tall banks of snow. It is near impossible to get accurate numbers of both rain or snow when high winds are involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PisgahNCWeather Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 It may have only been about 36" although the review suggested perhaps as much as 50" on the summit. Not quite sure what may have happened but it might have simply been a case where the observer was periodically cleaning off the snow board...and the wind drifted extra snow back on to it. Easey to happen when the board is surround by tall banks of snow. It is near impossible to get accurate numbers of both rain or snow when high winds are involved. The May 1992 snow was very much elevation dependent. Temperatures were borderline so the higher you went up the snow just piled up. Not sure why as years have gone on it has become more in question. Not really rocket science to measure snow, but I was not there to measure it myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buncombe Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I'm skeptical of the Mt. Mitchell report for the reason that it is so much higher than any surrounding area reports, even on mountain tops. I say this fully acknowledging that it is the snowiest mountain in North Carolina, and gets far more snow that peaks over 6000 in the Balsams, for example. Also, there was a radar band that seemed to sit over that area during the storm. It is just that 41 inches on Saturday seems unrealistic compared to other high elevation reports. The other reason I'm skeptical is that the huge report came on the day with by far the most wind. As we know it is very hard to get accurate snow measurements in the wind and I'm sure the snow was drifting like crazy on Saturday. I'd love to hear NWS GSP thoughts on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wncsnow Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I'm skeptical of the Mt. Mitchell report for the reason that it is so much higher than any surrounding area reports, even on mountain tops. I say this fully acknowledging that it is the snowiest mountain in North Carolina, and gets far more snow that peaks over 6000 in the Balsams, for example. Also, there was a radar band that seemed to sit over that area during the storm. It is just that 41 inches on Saturday seems unrealistic compared to other high elevation reports. The other reason I'm skeptical is that the huge report came on the day with by far the most wind. As we know it is very hard to get accurate snow measurements in the wind and I'm sure the snow was drifting like crazy on Saturday. I'd love to hear NWS GSP thoughts on it. GSP talked about this on their Facebook page, the Saturday report is actually the time period from 7AM Friday morning to 7 AM Saturday morning.. I don't doubt the report at all really, with the SE orographic lift it will maximize amounts there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I'm skeptical of the Mt. Mitchell report for the reason that it is so much higher than any surrounding area reports, even on mountain tops. I say this fully acknowledging that it is the snowiest mountain in North Carolina, and gets far more snow that peaks over 6000 in the Balsams, for example. Also, there was a radar band that seemed to sit over that area during the storm. It is just that 41 inches on Saturday seems unrealistic compared to other high elevation reports. The other reason I'm skeptical is that the huge report came on the day with by far the most wind. As we know it is very hard to get accurate snow measurements in the wind and I'm sure the snow was drifting like crazy on Saturday. I'd love to hear NWS GSP thoughts on it. I believe it was indeed accurate. The gentlemen at the ranger station on Mt. Mitchell know what they are doing as taking measurements in the wind are the norm rather than the exception. Also, Mt. Mitchell was well studied recently during the NASA/Duke U. study IPHEX. The data showed that mountain regularly receives drastically more precip than surrounding areas during windy storms due to the strong orthographics component/shape of the terrain which was all aligned nearly perfectly in the last storm. Many of the other mountain areas were blocked by the specific wind flow in this last storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PisgahNCWeather Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Robert or Foothills as he is known had an excellent write-up about this storm of May 1992 a few years ago. It was a cutoff and stalled directly over Mt. Pisgah. Not sure but it may still be able to be pulled up here on the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buncombe Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 I don't want to be interpreted as criticizing their measurement skills. I know they are trained and doing the best job they can. We have probably all studied mountain snow totals over the years, and Mitchell often leads the bunch for the simple fact that precipitation is a function of elevation, but this total was far beyond others to an extreme degree over other nearby mountain tops. During the 93 superstorm, Mitchell had huge totals as well but it was more in line with other nearby locations. I acknowledge this might have been just the perfect circumstances but I do have some doubts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Regarding Mt. Mitchell, one should always keep the following in mind: "The Mount Mitchell weather observation site is not at the peak of the Mtn at 6684', rather the measurements were made at a saddle back site about 2 miles SSW of the peak at the NC Ranger Station (Elev 6240')." Seems like I recall reading that the wind up on Mt. Mitchell is such they decided to put the weather observation site lower down so it wouldn't be blown away! Great video of Mt. Mitchell during the Winter: Gives you a good idea just how much higher the summit is than the observation site. Recently, a new weather station has been installed at the 6600 foot level. http://www.nchighpeaks.org/davis/index.html Vs this one at 6200 feet. https://climate.ncsu.edu/cronos/?station=MITC Today the top one is much cooler although the wind measurements don't seem quite right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnoJoe Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 What's up with the little system coming through Thursday night ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nchighcountrywx Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Mount Mitchell Update: http://www.ncparks.gov/mount-mitchell-state-park Mount Mitchell State Park is currently closed due to snow covered road conditions. Current weather conditions 28 degrees with wind chill feels like 20. Lots of Black Ice on roadway and trail. The Blue Ridge Parkway coming to Mount Mitchell is currently closed. Snow total 1/20/16-1/26-2016 is 65.5". Snow total for the year is 68". Total of 2/10" of ice today and the snow is melting total of 26" of snow still on the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hvward Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Next Friday morning looks like it could be very interesting around these parts again. Anyone tired of the snow yet? Not me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnoJoe Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Next Friday morning looks like it could be very interesting around these parts again. Anyone tired of the snow yet? Not me. Never! When you post, I listen. You're good dude. Thanks for taking pity on the less fortunate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hvward Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Never! When you post, I listen. You're good dude. Thanks for taking pity on the less fortunate. Thanks man! Only 1 more semester and I will be legit lol. I really like the setup we are going to get in after this warm up. Multiple chances for Gulf Lows and if those don't produce, NWF will dominate. It was 60 degrees today while I was skiing and Sugar and it just didn't feel right. I am ready for halftime of winter to end so we can get this show on the road. The mountains will cash in again before valentines day, mark it down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatLander48 Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Thanks man! Only 1 more semester and I will be legit lol. I really like the setup we are going to get in after this warm up. Multiple chances for Gulf Lows and if those don't produce, NWF will dominate. It was 60 degrees today while I was skiing and Sugar and it just didn't feel right. I am ready for halftime of winter to end so we can get this show on the road. The mountains will cash in again before valentines day, mark it down! 60 at sugar? I'm staying in a valley 5 minutes from there and we barely hit 45 lol. Them mountaintops got roasted today. As you stated I'm getting excited or the upcoming pattern. But my expectations aren't as high as my excitement yet though. Cold doesn't mean anything if the moisture isn't there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hvward Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 60 at sugar? I'm staying in a valley 5 minutes from there and we barely hit 45 lol. Them mountaintops got roasted today. As you stated I'm getting excited or the upcoming pattern. But my expectations aren't as high as my excitement yet though. Cold doesn't mean anything if the moisture isn't there. I guess I should have mentioned that I saw that temp(57f) on the board at the base of Sugar after finishing a run lol, so not sure how scientific that was. I do know for a fact that I was sweating a lot haha. At the top there was a slush puddle forming right beside the lift. I suspect that won't be a problem though after the cold air that will infiltrated the area week after next! Lots of interesting characters today on the slopes too, from the guy in spandex and a cowboy hat to the banana suit guys.. all bases were covered. Hope you guys got to get out and enjoy it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatLander48 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I guess I should have mentioned that I saw that temp(57f) on the board at the base of Sugar after finishing a run lol, so not sure how scientific that was. I do know for a fact that I was sweating a lot haha. At the top there was a slush puddle forming right beside the lift. I suspect that won't be a problem though after the cold air that will infiltrated the area week after next! Lots of interesting characters today on the slopes too, from the guy in spandex and a cowboy hat to the banana suit guys.. all bases were covered. Hope you guys got to get out and enjoy it! I'm heading out there today and tomorrow. Not sure if I'm wearing more than swimtrunks...get a tan and ski at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeGold Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I'm heading out there today and tomorrow. Not sure if I'm wearing more than swimtrunks...get a tan and ski at the same time. The mild temperature has melted snowpack to the point it was only patchy on the South facing portion of my mountain top yesterday. Somebody was able to reach almost to the top until stopped by a large boulder that came loose from somewhere that was blocking my driveway. February is now looking like it will be a cold one. Not much storm potential unless we see a shift in the storm track. Note that unlike most El Nino's...the Pacific NW has stayed very wet while Souhern CA has underperformed. If we start seeing Southern CA nailed...then locally things will likely get active again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hvward Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I am still liking Friday morning for some backside snow showers around WNC at the least. The euro continues to pick up on a weak deformation zone developing over WNC and providing NWF type action with the higher mountains getting decent snow totals. This will be similar to the Sunday morning event that we had 2 weeks ago, where most got a dusting to 1" of snowfall even down in the French Broad River Valley. Lots of time for this to change, but the models are beginning to harp on that signature. I am already close to climo here at my house as far as snowfall, so any more that falls will be bones. This will go down as an above average year for most in the Valley's of WNC as far a snowfall avg. The higher mountains though will need an abundance of nuisance NWF event to reach above average, but another big snowstorm like two Friday's ago and some peaks will be close to average. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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