Fall Foliage 2019

[CoastalWx]

Even down here, maples are coming along as well. Patches of decent color.

[powderfreak]

8 hours ago, J.Spin said:

That’s a good point; that top house up there on Snow Drift Road appears to be just a touch over 2,300’, which is definitely high elevation for a house in this area.  It doesn’t have the open views of those houses at Stowe, but it is slopeside, and you literally walk off the edge of the yard and you’re at the Five Corners area of the Bolton Valley alpine trail network.  That’s actually quite a prime slopeside spot on the trail network because you can ski right down to the main base via Lower Villager, or the Timberline Base via Timberline Run.  It’s a five trail intersection, so you’ve got three additional trails (Timberline Lane, Five Corners, and Upper Villager) starting right there that you can skin up for runs as well.  It’s a pretty sweet spot for a skier, or just somebody who likes snow.  I’d guess the snowfall average there is pushing 250” a season?  With respect to the spine of the Northern Greens, it’s going to have western slopes snow climatology vs. probably a more eastern slopes snow climatology at the houses PF pointed out, but both can obviously be awesome depending on the season.

We tried so hard to rent a condo up there right out of college...ended up in Jonesville which was the exact opposite effect.  Great location for going to recreation, but bad snow climo.  Those homes up at BV are really pretty cheap but man, driving that access road from 300ft to 2,300ft every day would do a number on your vehicle.  I'd deal with it in order to live in that weather that 2,000+ feet brings. 

I bet both places average about the same amount of snow.  There might be some slight event to event differences but both spots are literally on the slopes of the Spine so I don't think they'd see a ton of variation from westerly flow or easterly flow.  Those precipitation differences to me seem to become more noticeable once you get a few miles out (on either side) from the Spine.

[J.Spin]

4 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

We tried so hard to rent a condo up there right out of college...ended up in Jonesville which was the exact opposite effect.  Great location for going to recreation, but bad snow climo.  Those homes up at BV are really pretty cheap but man, driving that access road from 300ft to 2,300ft every day would do a number on your vehicle.  I'd deal with it in order to live in that weather that 2,000+ feet brings. 

I bet both places average about the same amount of snow.  There might be some slight event to event differences but both spots are literally on the slopes of the Spine so I don't think they'd see a ton of variation from westerly flow or easterly flow.  Those precipitation differences to me seem to become more noticeable once you get a few miles out (on either side) from the Spine.

Those houses up there at Bolton Valley really are quite affordable – back when I was in grad school a bunch of the guys (Andor, Shawshank, etc. from SkiVT-L) had a place up there, and if grad students can afford to live there, you know it’s pretty reasonable.  Ironically, none of us really skied at Bolton Valley back then because it was the era of the $299 “Big Pass” (Stowe & Sugarbush), and that was really just too good a combo of resorts for anyone to pass up at that price.  But those guys would have parties up at that house, and it was a blast going sledding, hiking on the mountain etc. with all the snow.

I definitely contemplate what it would be like to move to one of those places up there, more for the ability to simply pop on the skis and hit the powder than for the weather, although documenting the snowfall and annual precipitation at those elevations would be a blast.  There are those downsides though of always having to deal with the mountain road, not being able to pop to the store in just a couple minutes, and just generally being farther away from so many conveniences.  The commute to Burlington really isn’t bad though, and lots of people do it.  For someone who works up there in the Village, or maybe is retired or works from home and doesn’t have to be up and down the road too often, it’s a no brainer if you want to be close to all that recreation and snow.

Indeed I remember back when you lived in Jonesville, which is generally going to be a step up from the Champlain Valley in snowfall, but you’d just get hit so hard with downsloping sometimes.  I still find it hilarious that we ended up getting our place right here along the spine the way we did, since we had no clue about the distribution of microclimates around here.  Being just a mile in either direction (certainly to the west down in Bolton Flats) would likely see a decent drop in annual snowfall.

[powderfreak]

49 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

Those houses up there at Bolton Valley really are quite affordable – back when I was in grad school a bunch of the guys (Andor, Shawshank, etc. from SkiVT-L) had a place up there, and if grad students can afford to live there, you know it’s pretty reasonable.  Ironically, none of us really skied at Bolton Valley back then because it was the era of the $299 “Big Pass” (Stowe & Sugarbush), and that was really just too good a combo of resorts for anyone to pass up at that price.  But those guys would have parties up at that house, and it was a blast going sledding, hiking on the mountain etc. with all the snow.

I definitely contemplate what it would be like to move to one of those places up there, more for the ability to simply pop on the skis and hit the powder than for the weather, although documenting the snowfall and annual precipitation at those elevations would be a blast.  There are those downsides though of always having to deal with the mountain road, not being able to pop to the store in just a couple minutes, and just generally being farther away from so many conveniences.  The commute to Burlington really isn’t bad though, and lots of people do it.  For someone who works up there in the Village, or maybe is retired or works from home and doesn’t have to be up and down the road too often, it’s a no brainer if you want to be close to all that recreation and snow.

Indeed I remember back when you lived in Jonesville, which is generally going to be a step up from the Champlain Valley in snowfall, but you’d just get hit so hard with downsloping sometimes.  I still find it hilarious that we ended up getting our place right here along the spine the way we did, since we had no clue about the distribution of microclimates around here.  Being just a mile in either direction (certainly to the west down in Bolton Flats) would likely see a decent drop in annual snowfall.

Yeah I remember the early years for me on the List-Serve there was a crew that lived up there.  Even when we were looking, the prices were extremely reasonable for what they accessed, and the snowfall.  Being able to document that and collect data on the location would be such a fun experience, ha.  It just snows all winter and you have to be dedicated, but a few good seasons of observations would be amazing to have. 

And yeah, living in Richmond/Jonesville, the only place to buy anything closed at 8pm and that was a pint-sized Cumberland Farms gas station.  On top of that, we got downsloped to death in any synoptic event because the prevailing moist flow in those is usually out of the SE.  We downsloped severely off 4,000ft Camels Hump down to 300ft (in a relatively short distance)....with no terrain past us to slow the flow.  It was just Champlain Valley flats for the winds to run out into. 

The one I remember was in February 2010... the storm was sneaking up on us, and it started snowing steadily but just had trouble accumulating.  I was driving in for the snow report and woke up to 6" or so I think.  Heading out and turning east on RT 2, I remember running into what looked like double digit snowfall passing your area by the underpass with I-89.  Twice what I had.

[dryslot]

Golf digest is up at Sugarloaf mtn today, Looks like the color is starting to pop quite well up there.

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

Golf digest is up at Sugarloaf mtn today, Looks like the color is starting to pop quite well up there.

Things really are moving along there – the combination of daylight, temperatures, and whatever other factors are involved clearly lets the trees in that area know that their time for potential snow is getting close.

[tamarack]

3 hours ago, dryslot said:

Golf digest is up at Sugarloaf mtn today, Looks like the color is starting to pop quite well up there.

Lot of purple-y (and early turning) white ash in that pic.  Nice

[dryslot]

3 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Lot of purple-y (and early turning) white ash in that pic.  Nice

I have played there a few times over the years, That is Hole 6 which is a blind shot into that green as its all up hill and requires an extra two clubs to get to the green on your second shot.

[tamarack]

9 minutes ago, dryslot said:

I have played there a few times over the years, That is Hole 6 which is a blind shot into that green as its all up hill and requires an extra two clubs to get to the green on your second shot.

Ever played there in early June when the blackflies were swarming out of the Carrabassett?  I think they still spray with a narrow-target biological, but they can't get all of the little beasts.

[dryslot]

2 hours ago, tamarack said:

Ever played there in early June when the blackflies were swarming out of the Carrabassett?  I think they still spray with a narrow-target biological, but they can't get all of the little beasts.

I have not played that early for that reason and the fact that, Usually the course is just recovering from winter, Some years depending on how the greens came thru, Based on the amount of snow/ice that accumulated, They can have temporary greens, Bare spots and or they have been aerated due to winter kill so i rather play in July or Aug and this time of year as well with the foliage starting to take off.

[tamarack]

Spent the day on a research trip to Kibby Township, about halfway between Chain of Ponds and Jackman, and color change is well underway.  News pegged NW Maine as low but what we saw at 1500-2000' was moderate.

[wxmanmitch]

Full on moderate color happening here now. Lots of reds emerging. We're about a week ahead of last year at this time, which peaked October 5th-8th. Took these with my drone earlier today. 

 

 

[alex]

A few from the hood

[wxeyeNH]

Today was the first day that I noticed the colors really starting to change.  

[powderfreak]

Last light up at the mountain this evening right before the shadows swallow the entire east slope.

[CoastalWx]

Coming along nice up there. I also noticed some great color in local maples. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

There is a swamp that I drive by every day that is loaded with scraggly maples that change pretty quickly each year.  They have already lost most of their leaves

[powderfreak]

Some shots in mid-day sunshine today.  A nice cloudy, dreary day would probably make this color pop.

I'd say we are at moderate color.  I bet peak is around the first weekend of October...pretty much when it always is on the mountain.

[J.Spin]

12 hours ago, powderfreak said:

I'd say we are at moderate color.  I bet peak is around the first weekend of October...pretty much when it always is on the mountain.

I agree, things seem right on their usual track.  I know Tip went off with a big post about how incredibly early the color was, but that’s got to be some sort of more localized thing because I’m really not seeing it in my travels around our area.

[alex]

Today in Sugar Hill. Seems pretty much around schedule here, should peak in another 10 days or so? Early October seems about average for this area

[STILL N OF PIKE]

Stowe mountain def looks further along than the Bethlehem-Twin mountain NH area to me 

[STILL N OF PIKE]

On 9/21/2019 at 7:49 PM, powderfreak said:

Some shots in mid-day sunshine today.  A nice cloudy, dreary day would probably make this color pop.

I'd say we are at moderate color.  I bet peak is around the first weekend of October...pretty much when it always is on the mountain.

I would guess you may peak next weekend 

[dendrite]

I can't recall the maples being this far along in a long time. Even some of the oaks are starting to turn. Took back roads to go apple picking in Loudon yesterday and much over the ride was near 50% color with the swamp maple areas being at 100% peak. Lots of yellow in my birches as well.

[CoastalWx]

Trees got juked.

[Damage In Tolland]

2 hours ago, dendrite said:

I can't recall the maples being this far along in a long time. Even some of the oaks are starting to turn. Took back roads to go apple picking in Loudon yesterday and much over the ride was near 50% color with the swamp maple areas being at 100% peak. Lots of yellow in my birches as well.

I’d say 35% change around these parts 

[STILL N OF PIKE]

New Boston , NH Noon, today 

400’ near River Road 

[SJonesWX]

seems to be happening quick. lots of leaves came down last night and today.

[powderfreak]

The foliage difference between this year and last year is absolutely incredible to me.

Last year on this date there was literally nothing... just different shades of green.

Facebook reminded me of this photo, September 24, 2018:

 

Compared to this year... its crazy how much variability there is year to year.  We are going to peak in like a week this year when last year it was green.

 

And even down below 1,000ft in the valley it's a healthy moderate color.

[mreaves]

49 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

The foliage difference between this year and last year is absolutely incredible to me.

Last year on this date there was literally nothing... just different shades of green.

Facebook reminded me of this photo, September 24, 2018:

 

Compared to this year... its crazy how much variability there is year to year.  We are going to peak in like a week this year when last year it was green.

 

And even down below 1,000ft in the valley it's a healthy moderate color.

This may be one of those years when the people who try to save a buck by booking bus tours slightly ahead of traditional peak season luck out. 

[tamarack]

Approaching moderate around my place as well, though the significant white ash component gives a bias toward earliness.  That species is at peak here with 25% leaf drop while the rest of the trees show lower color and very little leaf drop.