NNE Fall Thread

[adk]

8 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Didn't settle too much overnight... I'm actually a bit impressed that after 6" of 56:1 (!) there's 5" on the ground today.  Still crazy at how high that ratio is for a stack that big.

Of course today's warmth is taking care of the snow in my yard rather quickly but I only had 2".  

It was pretty fluffy this AM....was shocked actually that it stayed fluffy

[eyewall]

We have some pretty strong winds here in the CPV. Southerlies gusting up to 45 mph at times. I saw a passenger plane at the airport have to abort its landing and climb out again to circle for another try. 

[tamarack]

Taking a quick look at last year’s data, a few notable snowfall ratios that I see are:

41 to 1 on a 7.7-inch stack (1:00 A.M., Mar 16^th)

54 to 1 on a 4.9-inch stack (6:00 P.M., Feb 16^th)

65 to 1 on a 1.3-inch stack (6:00 A.M., Feb 14^th)

70 to 1 on a 0.7-inch stack (6:00 A.M., Dec 11^th)

80 to 1 on a 1.6-inch stack (8:00 P.M., Feb 13^th)

90 to 1 on a 0.9-inch stack (6:00 A.M., Feb 17^th)

100 to 1 on a 1.0-inch stack (10:00 P.M., Dec 28^th)

120 to 1 on a 1.2-inch stack (7:00 A.M., Jan 15^th)

 

So you can see, the most extraordinary ratios are generally reserved for those samples with stack heights down in the ±1 inch range.  But with just a quick look at the list, you can tell that this afternoon’s 56 to 1 on a 5.6-inch stack is pretty darned respectable for the mass of snow that’s there.

The ones with only 0.01-0.02" LE have those monster ratios but the 3 with 0.1"+ LE are more anomalous, IMO.  With one cent LE you could probably read a newspaper lying under the snow, the flakes sitting corner to corner like the game screen of a bad Tetris player.  41:1 with nearly 2/10" LE is more impressive, to me, than 1" from 0.01".

In 44 Maine winters I've recorded just 20 snows of 3"+ that had ratios 20:1 or greater, only 5 at 30:1 or above.  3/4 of the 20 came with temps in the singles or teens, the rest in the 20s to 30.  The 2 highest, plus a few other noteworthies:

Jan. 16, 1974 (BGR):  4.5" from 0.10", 45:1.   Flat calm and 0-4F
Feb. 6, 1989 (Gardiner):  same 4.5 from 0.10.  Calm and teens.
Feb. 11-12, 2017 (NS):  8.0" from 0.26" LE, 31-1  Day long feathers at mid singles.  1st 7" was 35:1, last inch had smaller dendrites.
Dec. 19-20, 1981 (Ft.Kent):  15.5" from 0.68" LE, 23:1, teens.  No other 10"+ event is even close.  At 9 PM on 12/19 I'd had 10.5" of 26:1 flakes.  Moderately windy, too.
Oct. 29, 2000 (NS):  4.5" from 0.16" LE, 28:1 at 28-30F.  High ratio, near freezing, synoptic snow in Oct.  Those things shouldn't work together.

[J.Spin]

17 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Didn't settle too much overnight... I'm actually a bit impressed that after 6" of 56:1 (!) there's 5" on the ground today.  Still crazy at how high that ratio is for a stack that big.

 

There was already about an inch on the ground prior to yesterday’s event, so at peak depth yesterday evening there was ~7” at the stake.  Therefore I’d say there was likely a couple inches of settling by this morning.  It was still nice and fluffy though at observations time, although it will certainly consolidate some more with today’s temperatures.

 

I was up at Bolton Valley this morning and I’d say they probably got a similar amount of snow around the 2,000’ level, but it seemed like they picked up some additional inches higher on the mountain.  I had to make best guesses, factoring in settling etc., but I’ll put together a report with some pictures as soon as I get a chance.

[J.Spin]

Naturally with the surprise fluff bomb that Mother Nature delivered yesterday, I wanted to see how it played out on the slopes, so I stopped for a quick ski tour at Bolton Valley this morning.  Arriving up at the Village, I’d describe the weather as having a very Colorado-esque vibe.  The ground was covered with desert-dry, champagne powder and temperatures were in the mid-20s F.  Even before the sunshine hit you, the air just had that comfortable feel, and with the clear skies, the day just held that promise of being sunny, dry, and warm.  I guess it also reminded me of a March ski day to some degree.

 

I haven’t seen an official report on snow accumulations from the resort, which is not too surprising since they’re still in pre-season, but based on settled depths of the new powder and the rate of settling I’d seen at the house, I’d guess the Village elevations around 2,000’ picked up a half foot of snow.  That’s similar to what we picked up down at the house.  I’d tack on another couple of inches higher in the mountain, which would put accumulations there similar to the 7” reported at elevation for Stowe.  With the 7-8” of fluff, the total snowpack depth I was finding on the upper half of the mountain was in the 10-12” range.  I see that the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake came in at 11” as of tonight’s reading.  The high temperature up there was only 32 F, so that snow probably didn’t undergo much melting and is likely comparable to what I found at Bolton this morning.

 

I’ve added a few pictures from today’s tour below:

 

 

 

 

 

[J.Spin]

I see that it’s snowing on the Bolton Valley Live Web Cam at ~2,100’, so we’ll see if that snow makes it down here to 500’ in Waterbury at some point.  The general trend on the radar seems to be toward cooling as this front moves through so presumably the snow level will drop some.

[eyewall]

Wet flakes flying in the Noosk.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

[alex]

Only a few drops here, not even enough to wet the pavement. 36/28 so whatever falls will probably be rain... at least in the near future

[J.Spin]

2 hours ago, eyewall said:

Wet flakes flying in the Noosk.

 

The precipitation switched over to snow sometime in the 11:00 -11:30 A.M. range here in Waterbury, but intensity has been quite light, so there’s nothing to report in terms of accumulation other than a trace.

 

[alex]

Finally coming down and sticking here. Seems like the harder precip brought down some cold air? Or just the cold front approaching. Either way, we snow.

[wxeyeNH]

18 minutes ago, alex said:

Finally coming down and sticking here. Seems like the harder precip brought down some cold air? Or just the cold front approaching. Either way, we snow.

and here the rain is coming to an end.  Just on cue I can see the ridge tops becoming obscured in snow.  Perfect timing, cold air comes in and qpf exits.  Rain total .08" which is about what the models forecasted.

Happy T day!

[Lava Rock]

37.5F. 0.36". Sure would like some cold sustained airmass, 50F sat nd next Tues?? gross.

[wxeyeNH]

Congrats to someone who will have a white Thanksgiving up in Bretton Woods...

[dryslot]

Snowing at Bosebuck Camps

[powderfreak]

No accumulation in town and switched over around 11-1130am.  

Im off today but the report is 1.8" (2" for snow report) of snow on Mansfield.  

The new Sugarbush snow cam is awesome...healthy 3" there...but I didn't see a stack that even all of last winter.  Whatever they changed looks great and the cam quality is insane.  Props.

[dryslot]

+RN here most of the day with temps in the High 30's

 

[alex]

28 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Congrats to someone who will have a white Thanksgiving up in Bretton Woods...

Hey that's me! Measured 0.75" with my new ruler so far. 

[alex]

Decent snow again... let's see if we can squeeze out a few more tens of an inch. 

I know, it's sick to be excited about a few tens of an inch... but hey, it's festive!

[Lava Rock]

Snowing at Bosebuck Camps

Lets start freezing up the ponds soon, then bring on the snow

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[Lava Rock]

Decent snow again... let's see if we can squeeze out a few more tens of an inch. 

I know, it's sick to be excited about a few tens of an inch... but hey, it's festive!

Enjoy it.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, dryslot said:

Snowing at Bosebuck Camps

That sounds like a place Ray (40/70) would make up when trying to make a point about a place no one cares about lol. 

[dryslot]

2 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

That sounds like a place Ray (40/70) would make up when trying to make a point about a place no one cares about lol. 

Awesome place to ride into in the winter and get a great home cooked meal...

[dryslot]

Some here, Not in NNE but on this board may go thru life without ever visiting these remote hunting lodges and camps and experience some of the best dishes that cannot be had anywhere but in these places.

[alex]

Given how boring the forecast is, a quick comparison between last year and this year. We had an awesomely white Thanksgiving last year; this is is white but not nearly AS white.  Interestingly, though, we had a later start but smaller and more frequent events so far this year. 

2017			2016
10-Nov	2		20-Oct	3
11-Nov	0.25		25-Oct	0.25
13-Nov	0.5		31-Oct	0.25
15-Nov	0.001		11-Nov	0.25
16-Nov	0.5		21-Nov	3
17-Nov	1		22-Nov	3
19-Nov	0.2
20-Nov	2
22-Nov	0.8

 

[alex]

0.2" overnight; a mix of sun and flurries at the moment, 17.6F

[MarkO]

Not quite white up here this year although there are patches of snow. Last year I think we had about 2" on the ground from the turkey day event. Notably colder than back in Lowell where it's 39.5. Currently 27.3/15.

[alex]

2 minutes ago, MarkO said:

Not quite white up here this year although there are patches of snow. Last year I think we had about 2" on the ground from the turkey day event. Notably colder than back in Lowell where it's 39.5. Currently 27.3/15.

Cold for sure, as PF mentioned in the other thread - currently 24 after a high of 27. Heard a few complaining about the cold, but our renters are really excited about the full-on snowcover. Last night's snow was rather heavy so it stuck well to the tree, and it's mostly still there - makes for a very pretty and somewhat Christmasy scenery. Nice way to kick off the holidays!

[wxeyeNH]

34 minutes ago, alex said:

Cold for sure, as PF mentioned in the other thread - currently 24 after a high of 27. Heard a few complaining about the cold, but our renters are really excited about the full-on snowcover. Last night's snow was rather heavy so it stuck well to the tree, and it's mostly still there - makes for a very pretty and somewhat Christmasy scenery. Nice way to kick off the holidays!

As it gets dark your webcam goes black and white.  I like the effect.  We just got to dynamite the top of that mountain that blocks part of Mt Washington. On the otherhand, that ridge might just block the big Cog resort if it's built.  It would be to the left of the dome..  Truthfully I think its about the stupidest idea as it would just ruin the symmetry of the whole mountain....

Snow wise just a few patches in the shade around here.  Gotta look hard.  What a frickin boring pattern!

[powderfreak]

21 hours ago, alex said:

Given how boring the forecast is, a quick comparison between last year and this year. We had an awesomely white Thanksgiving last year; this is is white but not nearly AS white.  Interestingly, though, we had a later start but smaller and more frequent events so far this year. 

 

2017			2016
10-Nov	2		20-Oct	3
11-Nov	0.25		25-Oct	0.25
13-Nov	0.5		31-Oct	0.25
15-Nov	0.001		11-Nov	0.25
16-Nov	0.5		21-Nov	3
17-Nov	1		22-Nov	3
19-Nov	0.2
20-Nov	2
22-Nov	0.8

 

Frequency of snow is what we do best in upslope country.  

I'm really glad you found this forum because it's awesome to have the obs from your area. We always knew there was upslope there but it's nice to add people to the small group that sees these snows and can compare/discuss and have a very similar climate.  

You've got 1500ft of elevation too which is huge for where you live.  That's the only way anyone will give JSpin a run for his money...he's usually got everyone beat in terms of precipitation amounts but your elevation 1000ft higher give you a big advantage in events like yesterday.  I'm just the horse that trots along in 3rd place, as I'm a couple miles too far east to really compete...won't miss out but won't jackpot type location.  Of course I've always got "the office" which mixes elevation with max orographic lift to get my rocks off when home isn't getting it done.

Happy Thanksgiving dude.

[gravitylover]

^^I've been meaning to say to for a while too. I've only been to Bretton Woods a couple of times but the conditions have always been better than acceptable and the ski area reporting makes it look like the place is a real snow magnet. It will be nice to have someone giving us the real deal on a regular basis.