NNE Cold Season Thread 2020-2021

[ORH_wxman]

6 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

That's the place Dryslot has posted photos of before, right?  The topography there looks perfect for WNW flow.  

Yeah he posted pics there from last May and it was like over a foot of powder....like 2 days after the snow happened, lol. Apparently the snow depths in that area are legendary for the brae riders who get out that far. Always hard to say what an area would average when there's nothing close by to compare it to, but it looks like it would be at least as good as Diamond Pond, NH for upslope (slightly different optimal flows, but net benefit at least the same I'd think?) plus they probably do significantly better than places like Diamond Pond on synoptic snow. They would get topo assist on those types of flows too. Given Diamond Pond averaged 230" in its short existence, prob not that much of a leap to think Kibby is 300+

[MBRI]

This is called the Malvina loop. First altitude off the lower Canadian plain. snow here is easy 2/ 1 over nearby spots

[SJonesWX]

1 hour ago, MBRI said:

This is called the Ma

lvina loop. First altitude off the lower Canadian plain. snow here is easy 2/ 1 over nearby spots

Malvina. Rode it on Weds. it was well groomed, flat, and fast. great vista up at the top. some years it can be pretty beat up, but it was great the other day. Yeah, there is plenty of white up there

[alex]

Back from the Berks! I have to say, it reminded me how lucky we are to live up here. We drove around the scenic routes and (no offense to anyone from around there), there is just no comparison to the scenery here. Crossing from VT into Littleton NH we were greeted by the massive white silhouette of Mt Washington standing tall in the bright blue sky... It gave me goosebumps. It's good to be reminded of what we have and so often give for granted. 

Another thing that made me happy was to come back to a place where the pandemic feels much less burdensome. So much down there was still shut down, it was actually a bit depressing. 

[CoastalWx]

16 minutes ago, alex said:

Back from the Berks! I have to say, it reminded me how lucky we are to live up here. We drove around the scenic routes and (no offense to anyone from around there), there is just no comparison to the scenery here. Crossing from VT into Littleton NH we were greeted by the massive white silhouette of Mt Washington standing tall in the bright blue sky... It gave me goosebumps. It's good to be reminded of what we have and so often give for granted. 

Another thing that made me happy was to come back to a place where the pandemic feels much less burdensome. So much down there was still shut down, it was actually a bit depressing. 

I like the Berks. It doesn’t have the majesty that the Whites have, but a lot of cool towns with character and definitely plenty to do. Obviously for skiing it doesn’t compare.

[PhineasC]

43 minutes ago, alex said:

Back from the Berks! I have to say, it reminded me how lucky we are to live up here. We drove around the scenic routes and (no offense to anyone from around there), there is just no comparison to the scenery here. Crossing from VT into Littleton NH we were greeted by the massive white silhouette of Mt Washington standing tall in the bright blue sky... It gave me goosebumps. It's good to be reminded of what we have and so often give for granted. 

Another thing that made me happy was to come back to a place where the pandemic feels much less burdensome. So much down there was still shut down, it was actually a bit depressing. 

Yep, same thoughts WRT COVID. I hate going back to MD now. The place is so depressing. Very little hope on several fronts down there. 

[Ginx snewx]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

I like the Berks. It doesn’t have the majesty that the Whites have, but a lot of cool towns with character and definitely plenty to do. Obviously for skiing it doesn’t compare.

Sure does, guess it depends on where you go. The whitewater rafting is pretty sweet as well and I think Berkshire East is the best little mountain in New England certainly more fun interesting and challenging than some pretty flat ones in NNE.

[CoastalWx]

4 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Sure does, guess it depends on where you go. The whitewater rafting is pretty sweet as well and I think Berkshire East is the best little mountain in New England certainly more fun interesting and challenging than some pretty flat ones in NNE.

Yeah I look at it from the approach of the local news magazine “Chronicle.”  I enjoy the picturesque towns, each with individual character. The whites have majesty, but many of those towns don’t offer what the Berks have. It just depends what you want I guess. 

[PhineasC]

Just now, CoastalWx said:

Yeah I look at it from the approach of the local news magazine “Chronicle.”  I enjoy the picturesque towns, each with individual character. The whites have majesty, but many of those towns don’t offer what the Berks have. It just depends what you want I guess. 

Hey, don't talk about Dummer that way!

[CoastalWx]

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Hey, don't talk about Dummer that way!

I’ve been along rt 2 and all that area. I get to Berlin and violently say “glad we don’t live here.” But then head north to Errol and it’s just God’s country. 

[mreaves]

I like that each of the NE states have different character. 

[powderfreak]

47 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Sure does, guess it depends on where you go. The whitewater rafting is pretty sweet as well and I think Berkshire East is the best little mountain in New England certainly more fun interesting and challenging than some pretty flat ones in NNE.

Yeah I remember rafting the Deerfield and then also taking inflatable kayaks down it... Zoars Gap I think it’s called in there.  That’s good stuff.  Up here while the water is clear, don’t have that stuff in general.  It’s either like a lazy clear river or a flooding muddy torrent.

I like the Berkshires, for that latitude, they have the hill town vibe and culture for sure.

[ORH_wxman]

Nowhere in the east can match the presidentials for Mountain Views. They remind me of some of the views out west.

Obviously for living though, people will weigh different aspects of the area. Berkshires def have their own charm. If you’re into breweries/restaurants/bars/etc, up north is no match for the Berkshires. I don’t weigh that kind of stuff very heavily though so I love that western ME to N NH area more. 

 

[alex]

To put it in perspective, I have a 4 year old and a 6 year old. They don't give a rats ass about the town vibe lol. But also, once again, it's probably a Covid thing. The town vibes were depressing with everything shut down. It seems like it would be a much better destination in the summer. 

[Ginx snewx]

23 minutes ago, alex said:

To put it in perspective, I have a 4 year old and a 6 year old. They don't give a rats ass about the town vibe lol. But also, once again, it's probably a Covid thing. The town vibes were depressing with everything shut down. It seems like it would be a much better destination in the summer. 

Did you ski Berkshire East? Jiminy always has been meh to me. I definitely like the Berks for all things summer as well. The Whites are spectacular and the hiking trails are incredible but apres is seriously lacking. Bretton Woods is fun but a little too flat like Mt Snow, nice day trip though. Mountains and beaches are my gig and all the fantastic restaurants breweries make nightlife better. So much to see in New England if you know where to look. 

[powderfreak]

44 minutes ago, alex said:

To put it in perspective, I have a 4 year old and a 6 year old. They don't give a rats ass about the town vibe lol. But also, once again, it's probably a Covid thing. The town vibes were depressing with everything shut down. It seems like it would be a much better destination in the summer. 

Yeah maybe that's the difference.  I wonder what it's like outside of the bubble.  The longest trip we seem to make in the winter is to Burlington every couple few weeks.  In a ski town, there's a common thread.  Similar to a surf or beach community.  It's a community that's very interested in the out-of-doors that does it for me.

There's an energy here and in the mountains that's upbeat.  People are excited.  That's definitely the ski culture and the vacation town feel.  It's hard to get a depressed feeling in an area that seems highly desirable... like people work hard for their money, they save it up, and they look forward to using it to come to where we live.

The COVID comments are interesting.  It seems like it isn't a thing anymore except for wearing masks and being a little more conscious of how close you are to someone.  No real opinion on it from me, but there seems to be no economic problems locally.  Quite the opposite at times, 3 small businesses opened though one was PK Coffee that closed and reopened in another spot along the Mountain Road.  Scary for when there's no pandemic though, with the free market roaring the demand might be nuts.  Despite the very high demand to visit, the only problem for the town has been the lack of employees for area businesses from the previous President's ban on temporary work visa's (which I don't disagree with when so many are unemployed, but fails to realize the realities of seasonal employment).

[Hitman]

3 hours ago, alex said:

Back from the Berks! I have to say, it reminded me how lucky we are to live up here. We drove around the scenic routes and (no offense to anyone from around there), there is just no comparison to the scenery here. Crossing from VT into Littleton NH we were greeted by the massive white silhouette of Mt Washington standing tall in the bright blue sky... It gave me goosebumps. It's good to be reminded of what we have and so often give for granted. 

Another thing that made me happy was to come back to a place where the pandemic feels much less burdensome. So much down there was still shut down, it was actually a bit depressing. 

Agreed.  My in laws live in the berks, and every time I have to go there, I’m like, this is kinda like nne, but less.

[Hitman]

13 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah maybe that's the difference.  I wonder what it's like outside of the bubble.  The longest trip we seem to make in the winter is to Burlington every couple few weeks.  In a ski town, there's a common thread.  Similar to a surf or beach community.  It's a community that's very interested in the out-of-doors that does it for me.

There's an energy here and in the mountains that's upbeat.  People are excited.  That's definitely the ski culture and the vacation town feel.  It's hard to get a depressed feeling in an area that seems highly desirable... like people work hard for their money, they save it up, and they look forward to using it to come to where we live.

The COVID comments are interesting.  It seems like it isn't a thing anymore except for wearing masks and being a little more conscious of how close you are to someone.  No real opinion on it from me, but there seems to be no economic problems locally.  Quite the opposite at times.  Scary for when there's no pandemic though, with the free market roaring.  Despite the very high demand to visit, the only problem for the town has been the lack of employees for area businesses from the previous President's ban on temporary work visa's (which I don't disagree with when so many are unemployed, but fails to realize the realities of seasonal employment).

I think you hit on something here.  The Berkshire towns don’t have that skier/surfer outdoorsy feel.  More Lexus than Subaru and pickups.

[PhineasC]

My area is definitely not a “ski town” feel. Many folks I talk to around here don’t even ski. More of a motorsports kinda place. It’s definitely not exactly what we anticipated, but we love it. To be honest, I kinda can’t stand the ski town vibe in Conway and Jackson. Lot of fake seeming people there, IMO. No one seems local and authentic to me. 

[radarman]

IMO there's not a whole lot of culture in a lot of the Berks.  Maybe like Stockbridge/Great Barrington to an extent... Shelburne Falls I guess if you wanna count that... Perhaps Williamstown.  But most everywhere in between is a cultural desert.  Which isn't a knock exactly, the rural aspect has its charms.  But you don't get many tourists around here compared with VT, the Whites, Lakes regions of NH and ME, etc.

[greenmtnwx]

I was talking with my late teen son about N NH/Whites vs. VT/Greens and the culture and geography of the states. I came up with that NH is the blond with that big rack that you have a good time with. A little bit trashy. VT is the cute smart nerdy brunette that you take home to mom. Each has their own appeal. 

[PhineasC]

32 minutes ago, greenmtnwx said:

I was talking with my late teen son about N NH/Whites vs. VT/Greens and the culture and geography of the states. I came up with that NH is the blond with that big rack that you have a good time with. A little bit trashy. VT is the cute smart nerdy brunette that you take home to mom. Each has their own appeal. 

LOL

Trying to come up with something to argue this but I just can’t. 

[powderfreak]

Nice initial band of big flakes that coated the ground pretty well for only 15 minutes of snow, ha.

Know when big aggies start from the get-go that it’s marginal aloft.

[PhineasC]

Another really boring stretch on the extended through 240. Euro has basically no precip of any sort depicted.

We have wasted long stretches of this winter with these dry spells.

I had been hoping we'd get into a more active pattern as the temps started to warm up, but everything keeps getting shredded still anyway.

[wxeyeNH]

Yesterday we were commenting on the fact that we love NH.  Best move we ever made was moving up here full time in 2001.  We had to drive to Claremont NH yesterday to get our 2nd Covid Moderna shot  (we feel like crap today but it is worth it) and our drive took us through small western NH towns.  No graffiti, no traffic just blue sky and mountains with small towns.  Weatherwise wish we had bought a bit further north into the Whites but at least from here we are only 13 miles from Rt93 so can make it south quick (although we seldom do)

850am 22  Light snow.  About 1/2' in past 2 hours.

[alex]

13 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Yeah I look at it from the approach of the local news magazine “Chronicle.”  I enjoy the picturesque towns, each with individual character. The whites have majesty, but many of those towns don’t offer what the Berks have. It just depends what you want I guess. 

I probably haven't found the right towns lol. It seemed to me that the character and picturesque nature started in SVT. There it was beautiful little town after beautiful little town. The Berks seemed more like run of the mill rural towns, not particularly different from Central Mass where I lived for a while and certainly not as charming as places like Salem MA or Concord MA

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

Another really boring stretch on the extended through 240. Euro has basically no precip of any sort depicted.

We have wasted long stretches of this winter with these dry spells.

I had been hoping we'd get into a more active pattern as the temps started to warm up, but everything keeps getting shredded still anyway.

LOL Phin, I know you pointed out the other day that you’ve sort of got those requisite weenie gripes that you have to post to stay sane… but others of us wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t push back with a dose of reality as well.  We did just have four storms in the past week… storms that were forecast by the models extremely well, and I specifically made that post with the snow totals at our site from those systems to highlight how the systems had delivered after we’d discussed them.

The irony is that we’re literally in the middle of another storm right now, and then there are three more shown in the models through Thursday.  I highlighted those potential systems in that post as well.

Don’t let that Mid-Atlantic winter mentality trick you into thinking that nothing is happening because there’s not some blockbuster storm on your doorstep.  I do see weenies in the forum frequently underplay most smaller systems because they’re waiting for the next “fix” of a big system, or smaller snows are just a nuisance to them, or whatever.  Heck, I’ve seen them mentally melt the snow and move on before the system even arrives.  I get it, many of them live in feast or famine climates farther south where smaller systems either rarely happen, or the snow just melts away soon after it stops, or whatever.  You don’t live there.

And it does seem that systems getting “shredded” has been the latest fad terminology in the sub-forum this season.  Yes, there’s ongoing research about potential changes in various aspects of atmospheric circulation, but looking from the outside, the conversations seem rather arbitrary and driven by thoughts like “Why did that system that was shown on some model a week out for my tiny little corner of the planet disappear on me?” or “There’s got to be a reason that we’re not getting those twice weekly coastal systems bombing out over the benchmark like we always do… there just has to be!”  In the end, it simply seems like the stochastic processes of weather, but it’s a “discussion” forum, so folks have to discuss something.

Let the late Bill Paxton help you out a bit here with some perspective…

 

[PhineasC]

8 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

LOL Phin, I know you pointed out the other day that you’ve sort of got those requisite weenie gripes that you have to post to stay sane… but others of us wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t push back with a dose of reality as well.  We did just have four storms in the past week… storms that were forecast by the models extremely well, and I specifically made that post with the snow totals at our site from those systems to highlight how the systems had delivered after we’d discussed them.

The irony is that we’re literally in the middle of another storm right now, and then there are three more shown in the models through Thursday.  I highlighted those potential systems in that post as well.

Don’t let that Mid-Atlantic winter mentality trick you into thinking that nothing is happening because there’s not some blockbuster storm on your doorstep.  I do see weenies in the forum frequently underplay most smaller systems because they’re waiting for the next “fix” of a big system, or smaller snows are just a nuisance to them, or whatever.  Heck, I’ve seen them mentally melt the snow and move on before the system even arrives.  I get it, many of them live in feast or famine climates farther south where smaller systems either rarely happen, or the snow just melts away soon after it stops, or whatever.  You don’t live there.

And it does seem that systems getting “shredded” has been the latest fad terminology in the sub-forum this season.  Yes, there’s ongoing research about potential changes in various aspects of atmospheric circulation, but looking from the outside, the conversations seem rather arbitrary and driven by thoughts like “Why did that system that was shown on some model a week out for my tiny little corner of the planet disappear on me?” or “There’s got to be a reason that we’re not getting those twice weekly coastal systems bombing out over the benchmark like we always do… there just has to be!”  In the end, it simply seems like the stochastic processes of weather, but it’s a “discussion” forum, so folks have to discuss something.

Let the late Bill Paxton help you out a bit here with some perspective…

 

I am speaking just about my location. I am craving a 4-6" storm here. I haven't had over 2" since early Feb, and it looks like that will continue for the next 10 days at least. It's a pretty dull stretch for bigger storms considering this February was very active in many other places. That's all. 

I get that there is currently "a storm" ongoing but have you looked at radar and temps? LOL

[Fozz]

I’m about to head to the slopes at Stowe. Looking forward to it, but this “storm” is basically flurries.

[wxeyeNH]

J Spin,   I do understand what Phin is saying.  It has become quite a remarkable snow season.  Below is my snowfalls for this season.  I have scratched and clawed up to my 60" or so.  Not one storm over 3.50" this season except for the crazy death band of the Dec storm that gave me 2 feet in about 12 hours.  Don't think I have ever had a season without at least one 4" storm.