NNE Cold Season Thread 2020-2021

[mreaves]

10.9°/6.8°

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, backedgeapproaching said:

Found some snow in Austria---from a few days ago. And Spain second pic..

Life goal is to live in the Alps for a bit, my wife would totally be down.  Those villages are so damn cool and while they don't get the most snow, they get monster dumps.  The culture and mountains are just incredible.  The cool weather is just the icing on the cake.

[alex]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Life goal is to live in the Alps for a bit, my wife would totally be down.  Those villages are so damn cool and while they don't get the most snow, they get monster dumps.  The culture and mountains are just incredible.  The cool weather is just the icing on the cake.

I was born in Torino, near the Alps. There are some breathtaking towns there. Courmayeur and the village of Cogne are some of my favorites. Chamonix is also really nice, on the other side. Cogne at about 5000 ft is just idyllic, surrounded by glaciers and enormous waterfalls towering over the town. Just breathtaking 

[J.Spin]

11 hours ago, alex said:

What's funny is that it's actually been in my opinion perfect winter temperatures here. Below freezing for the past 4 days, no torches, snow still hanging on the trees, daily flurries and yet no uncomfortable mornings when you wonder why you live in this tundra. Although today's high of 22 did feel strangely chilly skiing. 

Those are my exact sentiments - these temperatures have been awesome.  And it was around 20 F when I was out during the day yesterday and it definitely felt cold.  It was a reasonable cold though, I didn't even contemplate putting on a layer over my pants, and it was still fine.  I'm pretty sure a high temperature like that is below average though, even for around here in January.

[dendrite]

Yup. Just cold enough to snow is fine by me. I’ll take 30/20 days everyday in winter. 

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

Yup. Just cold enough to snow is fine by me. I’ll take 30/20 days everyday in winter. 

Yeah agreed.  I don’t want people to think I want it -10F.... just interesting to see just how above normal it has been so far.

Like in October this look on a seasonal model for 2-M temps would be fiery red over NNE...and yet we are still keeping snow on the ground.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, J.Spin said:

Those are my exact sentiments - these temperatures have been awesome.  And it was around 20 F when I was out during the day yesterday and it definitely felt cold.  It was a reasonable cold though, I didn't even contemplate putting on a layer over my pants, and it was still fine.  I'm pretty sure a high temperature like that is below average though, even for around here in January.

Yeah this air mass is finally more normal or even a tick below.  Low of 6F last night is the coldest in weeks it seems like.

[PhineasC]

7 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah agreed.  I don’t want people to think I want it -10F.... just interesting to see just how above normal it has been so far.

Like in October this look on a seasonal model for 2-M temps would be fiery red over NNE...and yet we are still keeping snow on the ground.

I kinda want a super-cold stretch just because it would be neat for me personally being new up here.

But for now I just want precip. Even a blowtorch pattern is clearly cold enough for snow here this time of year. I should be piling up every drop of moisture as snow right now. The precip shield over New England on the models is something else.

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

Yup. Just cold enough to snow is fine by me. I’ll take 30/20 days everyday in winter. 

Need some near zero nights to put safe ice on the lakes.  Don't need -20.

[DavisStraight]

44 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Need some near zero nights to put safe ice on the lakes.  Don't need -20.

The small ponds here are iced over, doesn't look safe to walk on though, the big ponds have no ice except the coves.

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

I kinda want a super-cold stretch just because it would be neat for me personally being new up here.

But for now I just want precip. Even a blowtorch pattern is clearly cold enough for snow here this time of year. I should be piling up every drop of moisture as snow right now. 

Yeah, can’t blame you for wanting to experience some of that cold NNE weather to get a feel for it in your new spot.

But as PF has been showing, this is why when folks are pining for these patterns with dumps of super cold temperatures in the Northeast in midwinter, we’re not necessarily jumping for joy.  For the most part, it’s not needed.  Sure, it can freeze up bodies of water and the snow preservation is good, but it often means we get to sit in dry, frigid, arctic air and freeze our butts off on the slopes in subzero temperatures while the storm track is pushed southward out of the area.  “Oh, you mean we get the privilege of having dangerous subzero temperatures in the mountains and no storms to refresh the ski surfaces?  Wow, what a deal!”  Obviously there are various degrees to which this happens, but you get the idea.

Up here, getting moisture is the key in midwinter.  Aside from being warm-sectored from a storm to our immediate west, or some highly anomalous pattern, the midwinter temperatures up here take care of themselves.  The current stretch with these well above normal temperatures sort of testifies to that.

Systems are still in the queue for next week though, with potential impulses on Tue/Wed, Thurs, and Friday, depending on which model you look at.  It’s still a bit far out to start getting into amounts, but it looks like we’re talking northern stream stuff that is pretty reliable once we get within a few days.  The thoughts from the BTV NWS seem right in line with what I’m seeing, with chances increasing as the week progresses:

.LONG TERM /TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/...

As of 302 AM EST Saturday...Increasing chances for precipitation as we head through the week owing to a series of upper shortwaves that will cross the region. As is typical with these sort of scenarios, there`s a fair amount of disagreement in the specifics of these systems, not only model to model but also run to run. That being said, it still looks like the best chances for widespread precipitation will be late in the week with a weak clipper system moving in from Ontario, followed by the upper trough digging to our west. This latter feature will also result in a slight warming trend through the week; hence the precipitation would likely be a rain/snow mix in the valleys and snow in the mountains.

[PhineasC]

Finally getting cable Internet brought in here. What a damned process this has been. LOL

[wxeyeNH]

Just took a ride around Newfound Lake here in Central NH.  The lake is wide open.  Really unusual going into Mid January.  My region is totally snow covered but only 3-5" of coverage.  Definitely below normal although white is white and that is what I like about NNE.  Definitely 4 seasons when the ground is snow covered even in years like this.  Got down to 15F last night.  I don't radiate well but my low so far this season has only been 5F.  

[qg_omega]

4 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Finally getting cable Internet brought in here. What a damned process this has been. LOL

Starlink 

[Angus]

8 hours ago, tamarack said:

Need some near zero nights to put safe ice on the lakes.  Don't need -20.

Just arrived at lake winnisquam, walked down to shore. No ice and we're in a somewhat protected cove. I was hoping we'd get some good cold and the big lakes would freeze and I could skate before the snow buried the ice.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, Angus said:

Just arrived at lake winnisquam, walked down to shore. No ice and we're in a somewhat protected cove. I was hoping we'd get some good cold and the big lakes would freeze and I could skate before the snow buried the ice.

I can't believe the amount of open water around here, even smaller ponds.  Though the past 24 hours did put ice over a lot of stuff in a very short period of time.  Just not thick enough by any means. 

[powderfreak]

Maybe we get a period of snow at some point in the next few days?  ECMWF has a 1-3" nickle possible.  Other models not as enthused.  What a boring stretch for precipitation.  At least the clouds have been cool in January.

 

[PhineasC]

3 hours ago, qg_omega said:

Starlink 

I wish. I signed up for the beta but never heard anything.

[J.Spin]

I was last out at the mountain on Sunday, and although we’ve only had a few additional inches of snow since then, it seemed like today was a good day to head on up for a tour and check out the conditions.

I didn’t check out any of the manmade or lift-served terrain today, but I started my tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Network and then connected over to the Wilderness area.

The Colorado-esque weather regime over the past few days has definitely been outstanding with respect to snow preservation.  In areas that haven’t been skied, all the recent snows are just sitting there in the form of midwinter powder, and I found depths of generally 6-12” at the 2,000’ elevation and 8-12” up around 2,700’, which was as high as I went on my tour.  I’d say the main issue is still the base below that snow.  It’s quite variable, and down at 2,000’ in the Village elevations there’s nothing at all below the powder in unprotected areas.  In the higher elevations the base is a bit less variable, but there’s still nowhere near enough base for steep terrain.

What I saw that impressed me most on today’s tour was the state of skier-packed natural terrain.  Areas like Lower Turnpike, Telemark Practice Slope, Bryant Trail, and Nordic trails like World Cup (some of these may have been machine-packed) were in very good to excellent shape.  Presumably, these areas of packed snow held up well against the warmth around Christmas, and now the additional snows of the past week or two have reinforced that base.  Lower Turnpike had nearly perfect coverage, and all this packed terrain is going to make for some excellent powder skiing when the next storms come.

All in all, though, you could definitely feel that winter has settled in for the mountains, even if the snowpack/base is on the low side.  The water bards I encountered today were all sufficiently frozen, although most of them are still visible and require a bit of navigation.

A few shots from today:

[J.Spin]

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Maybe we get a period of snow at some point in the next few days?  ECMWF has a 1-3" nickle possible.  Other models not as enthused.

 

Yeah, that’s sort of the result of the first couple of salvos of snow that some of the models show for this coming week.  If you look at the latest run of the GFS, you can basically see four snow events now, one each day starting on Tuesday, with each subsequent one becoming more substantial.  It won’t necessarily play out exactly like that of course, but stepping through the GFS frames for this coming week has definitely got that sort of look… I can’t quite recall the term at the moment, but I know I’ve seen an image posted frequently here in the NNE thread to describe it.  I’m sure the term will come to me at some point.

[alex]

7 hours ago, J.Spin said:

Yeah, that’s sort of the result of the first couple of salvos of snow that some of the models show for this coming week.  If you look at the latest run of the GFS, you can basically see four snow events now, one each day starting on Tuesday, with each subsequent one becoming more substantial.  It won’t necessarily play out exactly like that of course, but stepping through the GFS frames for this coming week has definitely got that sort of look… I can’t quite recall the term at the moment, but I know I’ve seen an image posted frequently here in the NNE thread to describe it.  I’m sure the term will come to me at some point.

Increasingly large portions of bread and butter?

[alex]

One of the wider glades opened yesterday. Rough conditions but fun 

[Baroclinic Zone]

On 1/8/2021 at 11:08 PM, alex said:

I was born in Torino, near the Alps. There are some breathtaking towns there. Courmayeur and the village of Cogne are some of my favorites. Chamonix is also really nice, on the other side. Cogne at about 5000 ft is just idyllic, surrounded by glaciers and enormous waterfalls towering over the town. Just breathtaking 

You can pick just about any alpine valley out there in the Alps and fall in love with them. Can’t replicate that here.

[Lava Rock]

I wish. I signed up for the beta but never heard anything.

Same here

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[#NoPoles]

1 hour ago, alex said:

One of the wider glades opened yesterday. Rough conditions but fun 

That little pink human is adorable, looks like a sea star!

[bwt3650]

2 hours ago, alex said:

Increasingly large portions of bread and butter?

Verbatim, the gfs has non-stop daily snow everyday starting Tuesday for about a week.  I guess that would be how the northern greens get it done while everyone else sits and waits.  2-3 a day for a week with a little more Friday and no crazy wind or arctic would be just fine with me.  I guess we can hope.

[#NoPoles]

48 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Verbatim, the gfs has non-stop daily snow everyday starting Tuesday for about a week.  I guess that would be how the northern greens get it done while everyone else sits and waits.  2-3 a day for a week with a little more Friday and no crazy wind or arctic would be just fine with me.  I guess we can hope.

We take

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 0.1” Snow/0.01” L.E.

 

I thought this would be the end of our current run of days with snowfall, but I was surprised to discover it snowing this morning at observations time.  The snow continued after observations time as well, so it looks like we’ll have another couple of entries for this streak.  There’s really no notable system around, and the main discussion in the BTV NWS AFD is about the inversion, so this snow is going to be attributed to the moisture associated with the current inversion event.

 

Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations:

New Snow: 0.1 inches

New Liquid: 0.01 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 10.0

Snow Density: 10.0% H2O

Temperature: 23.4 F

Sky: Light Snow (1 mm flakes)

Snow at the stake: 6.5 inches

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

Verbatim, the gfs has non-stop daily snow everyday starting Tuesday for about a week.  I guess that would be how the northern greens get it done while everyone else sits and waits.  2-3 a day for a week with a little more Friday and no crazy wind or arctic would be just fine with me.  I guess we can hope.

If we wanted to use it, I’m sure there’s a very pertinent audio reference that could be applied here.

[powderfreak]

What a morning.  My version of Sunday morning church.