NNE Spring Thread

[eyewall]

Love those shots PF! Here is one more from yesterday:

[eyewall]

The waterbury reservoir (less than ideal sky but still cool):
 

[wxeyeNH]

I took the drone up today for the first time in about a month and noticed something subtle but interesting.  Wonder if you have noticed this eyewall around Lake Champlain.  Trees are just leafing out around here.  West of Newfound Lake as you can see with the drone picture the trees are still mostly bare.  Away from the lake they are leafing out.  Here is a picture looking SW.  Wonder if the west wind keeps the climate just a bit cooler east of the lake to retard the leafout?  You would never notice from the ground but you can from the air!

[eyewall]

I took the drone up today for the first time in about a month and noticed something subtle but interesting.  Wonder if you have noticed this eyewall around Lake Champlain.  Trees are just leafing out around here.  West of Newfound Lake as you can see with the drone picture the trees are still mostly bare.  Away from the lake they are leafing out.  Here is a picture looking SW.  Wonder if the west wind keeps the climate just a bit cooler east of the lake to retard the leafout?  You would never notice from the ground but you can from the air!

That could be with the lake breeze

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[eyewall]

From today ahead of the rain:

[MarkO]

1 hour ago, eyewall said:

From today ahead of the snow:

Fixed it for ya.

Actually, I don't expect anything on the valley floor, but think there's a chance of accumulation above about 2000-2500'

[MarkO]

Nice shots BTW Eyewall, Gene. I just picked up another drone (my seventh :D). Got the Mavic. I just wish I brought it up north with me. 

[wxeyeNH]

1 hour ago, MarkO said:

Nice shots BTW Eyewall, Gene. I just picked up another drone (my seventh :D). Got the Mavic. I just wish I brought it up north with me. 

I wanted the Mavic and I'm sure I will want the new P5 when it comes out.  My P4 does a great job so I just can't justify it.  Enjoy the Mavic!

Meanwhile it has sure taken all day for the rain to make headway NE.  That was well forecasted.   Not expecting any flakes or even cat paws but who knows?  

Black flies have made it to my location.  Hate those things!

[alex]

Rain/snow mix. 36/34

[eyewall]

Nice shots BTW Eyewall, Gene. I just picked up another drone (my seventh ). Got the Mavic. I just wish I brought it up north with me. 

 

 

Thank you and I wish I could pick up a p5.

 

 

 

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[wxeyeNH]

Ginx posted this picture in the banter thread.  Thought I would post it here too.   

[backedgeapproaching]

Wouldn't want to be stuck on that road with RWD and fresh summer tires on.

I'm not sure how much fell around here. Stattton had a pic of their golf course covered in about 1-2 inches which is at like 2k. So guessing a little more higher up.

 

 

 

[J.Spin]

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 4:38 PM, powderfreak said:

One more day left at Stowe for lift serviced...but we'll probably be able to skin it into mid-May depending on the weather pattern.

 

Yep:

 

 

I was up at the mountain for a tour yesterday, and there’s still essentially continuous coverage on Nosedive.  The recent weather pattern has been nice for preservation, although it’s made it a bit tougher to find clear, sunny days for turns.  I headed up in the morning, since the forecast suggested that was the best weather window, but I don’t think it rained around here until well into the evening.  There’s a bit less snow on Nosedive now compared to last weekend of course, but I like the consistency of the snow a lot more yesterday – it was softer but not too soft, and the turns were excellent.

 

You can see that there’s still a long way to go with regard to the foliage line, but by the time summer actually arrives the leaves will be there:

 

 

I’ve got a couple more images in my full report from yesterday.

[wxeyeNH]

  I have been watching Alex's cam and it's been snowing at 1500 feet in Bretton Woods all day.  Snow seems to be really increasing in intensity but not sticking yet.   Noted Mount Washington recorded 14.5" of snow as of 11am and its been snowing hard and 28F.  I was curious as to how much snow they usually get in May.  Average is 12.2".  Record is 97".   Most in 24 hours is 22"  so I think they may break that one.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, J.Spin said:

 

Yep:

 

 

J... its been a while since I've seen you but I just saw you actually captured me skinning in one of your images.  I forget where I was in relation to that guy wearing the bright colors near the bottom of the Nosedive turns, but I'm one of the guys up there in shorts.  

I actually went down Rim Rock and then skied the Nosedive Glades and just barely was able to make it back to Nosedive.  I think its safe to say the woods are done for the season.

 

That might do it for me for the season...I'm leaving for California later this week and by the time I get back it'll be probably just patchy up high.

 

[powderfreak]

Just remembered these photos from last week's cold shot and thought it was interesting to see the "wall of precip" in May. 

This was when it was snowing on the mountain and we had probably the last "upslope look" from town that we'll see for a while.

Here's a look from a couple days ago from the Dog Path down in Stowe Village near RT 100.

Now here's what it looks like when the Mansfield Cloud is in place and its precipitating steadily on the mountain, with nothing but scattered sprinkles reaching town.  That's the classic upslope wall of white (more gray than white though).  Everyone in town knows you see this view in winter and it means good things for the ski resort.

Here's the radar image from that time.  You can see the echos over the Spine/County line to the west of town, just sitting there going nowhere.

[alex]

Mt Washington looking beautiful tonight!

[wxeyeNH]

13 hours ago, alex said:

Mt Washington looking beautiful tonight!

May 15th and the trees look like mid winter.   In about 3 months your first foliage will start with the early frosts!   Expect a very rapid green up in the next few days.  

[eyewall]

Summer fever has arrived:

[backedgeapproaching]

Missing the heat at home, but found it down in here in Tampa. 96/63. Not horrific dews I guess, but toasty nonetheless. 

[J.Spin]

On ‎5‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 0:36 PM, Ginx snewx said:

Mwn obs:We're celebrating the summit's record breaking snowfall with an ice cream cone on the deck!
38 hours of continuous snowfall left behind a whopping 33.3"of snow, making this our largest snowstorm ever recorded in May, as well as breaking our 24-hour May snowfall record with 22.9" in a 24-hour period!

 

Some of our graduating seniors invited me on one of the ski trips they’d planned for Mt. Washington this spring, and it just happened to coincide with the tail end of the recent snowstorm that everyone’s been talking about.  I actually don’t get up to Mt. Washington very often with fresh snow, since the powder and general surface conditions in the Northern Greens are typically better, and Mt. Washington is a cold and dangerous place to be during the heart of winter.  In this case though, with warming temperatures it looked like we’d see enough consolidation to set up at least some safe skiing, so the trip was on.

 

Ascending from Pinkham Notch at ~2,000’, we saw our first signs of snow at 2,650’ on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, and at around 3,400’ the snow cover was continuous enough that I was able to start skinning there and made it right up to Hermit Lake.  The new foot or so of snow had certainly helped with the potential for skinning – coverage would have been somewhat less continuous on that last part of the ascent without it.

 

In terms of ski conditions higher up in the bowl and the various chutes and gullies, as we pretty much knew going in, they actually would have been better without all the new snow.  There was a nice established base of corn snow in place already, but the new stuff wouldn’t have cycled to corn yet, and warming temperatures would quickly turn it to mush.  Indeed that was the case, at least in the 4,000’ to 5,000’ elevation range.  Tuckerman Ravine itself was only transiently visible among the clouds when we first arrived at Hojo’s, but we had good views of Hillman’s Highway, and you could see that slide activity had already put a bunch of new, wet snow in place.  The sloughs were readily visible as we shot some telephoto images from Hojo’s to investigate.  The image below taken at 448 mm equiv. and cropped shows a snowboarder in the choke of Hillman’s, and to his left you can clearly see the slough of wet snow that had settled in there:

 

 

Here’s a wider shot at 384 mm equiv. showing some of the snow higher up in the gully above the choke – there’s plenty of new snow visible off to climber’s left:

 

 

Once in the gully itself, we found the best skiing was off course away from the dense snow that had sloughed, and optimal where skier traffic had cleared away the mushy surface snow down to the older corn snow.  The bottom of the gully held a bit too much of the new snow to really get down to anything below – it was bottomless mushy snow, and folks that were lapping the gully would simply stop and ascend before they got to that.

 

In any event, it was very cool to get out there and check out the bounty from the recent storm – the new snow definitely helped bolster things down low a bit for skinning, and we were able to ski about a third of the Sherburne Ski Trail because it had opened back up thanks to the storm.  The summit snowfields looked really nice with all the new snow, and there should be some fantastic easy access skiing up there in the coming weeks as the road reopens:

 

 

I’ve got some additional shots below, and more are available in my full report from the day.

 

 

 

 

[CoastalWx]

Wow, great shots Jspin. As usual. 

[Ginx snewx]

Nice Jspin, great account

[J.Spin]

Cool, glad you guys enjoyed the report/images.  There’s plenty of snow still around, so I’ll have to see if the weather cooperates for any additional visits.

[wxeyeNH]

Our apple trees are in full blossom today.  Some years the bloom is okay but this year its much more vibrant.  Wonder if because they were stressed last year with the drought if they put out more blooms the next spring?

Eastern Redbud is in bloom too. 

I am always posting pictures looking SW but here is one looking north-west out the backside of the house.  

[eekuasepinniW]

3 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

Our apple trees are in full blossom today.  Some years the bloom is okay but this year its much more vibrant.  Wonder if because they were stressed last year with the drought if they put out more blooms the next spring?

Eastern Redbud is in bloom too. 

I am always posting pictures looking SW but here is one looking north-west out the backside of the house.  

Nice.  I am super jealous of your land.

[powderfreak]

Nice stuff JSpin!

[eyewall]

The gorge above Bingham Falls before I lost my drone to the river on the next flight. We retrieved it but not sure if it will work again. 

[Lava Rock]

The gorge above Bingham Falls before I lost my drone to the river on the next flight. We retrieved it but not sure if it will work again. 

Did your battery die?

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[eyewall]

5 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

Did your battery die?

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No it was a dumb move on my part. On the second flight I attempted a real tricky takeoff and paid the price. The props caught and the drone backflipped into the river almost instantly.