NNE Cold Season Thread 2021/2022

[mreaves]

Seeing the pictures out of KY really puts my whining about the lack of snow in perspective.  I know it’s apples to oranges but I’d rather deal with our crappy weather than that. 

[PhineasC]

Christmas period starting to look pretty interesting for NNE. 

[dendrite]

44 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Christmas period starting to look pretty interesting for NNE. 

What’s your temp? The Jefferson RWIS is already 55°.

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, dendrite said:

What’s your temp? The Jefferson RWIS is already 55°.

36.5

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, mreaves said:

Seeing the pictures out of KY really puts my whining about the lack of snow in perspective.  I know it’s apples to oranges but I’d rather deal with our crappy weather than that. 

Our area gets small tornados, small hurricanes, small earthquakes and big snowstorms.  That's a good portfolio.

Yesterday's 17/1 was 14° BN, and the first double digit BN day since mid April.  Currently ZR with about 0.1" accretion.  Treated roads were fine but our 2,000-foot gravel road was not yet treated, and nasty, and the porch stairs were worse (until I sprinkled the wood ash).

[dryslot]

Pines are starting to sag.

[PhineasC]

7 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Pines are starting to sag.

Looks like you have yourself a nice play area back there.

[dryslot]

3 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Looks like you have yourself a nice play area back there.

Wife has a daycare.

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, dryslot said:

Wife has a daycare.

Send 'em out there today anyway.

[dryslot]

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Send 'em out there today anyway.

None here on the weekends, 5 days/wk is plenty to have 8 toddler's running around.

[alex]

Drove to Stowe this morning. A pretty gnarly accident just past Littleton NH. Lots of ice in the NEK

[dendrite]

51 minutes ago, alex said:

Drove to Stowe this morning. A pretty gnarly accident just past Littleton NH. Lots of ice in the NEK

Jesus I have more snow on the ground than you now.

[PhineasC]

Yep, we are just about wiped out here again. Clean slate yet again.

At least there is nothing left for the cutters and warmth next week to take.

Been a lousy season for holding pack so far. Things look to change on the 18th.

[powderfreak]

5 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Jesus I have more snow on the ground than you now.

Probably more than me, I’d imagine the village got smoked today here.  CAD getting it done in your area.

1500ft still seemed like half a foot around here as of an hour or two ago.

[powderfreak]

2 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Yep, we are just about wiped out here again. Clean slate yet again.

At least there is nothing left for the cutters and warmth next week to take.

Been a lousy season for holding pack so far. Things look to change on the 18th.

So far “pack” building isn’t really even a word to describe it, but it has felt like snow cover has been on the ground most of the time. We’ve been lucky with refreshes fast after the melts… but this one looks different.  Might ride bare ground for a bit.

The other times it seemed like 2-4” would land within 24 hours of melting out to at least make it white again.

[Patriot21]

Just about all gone here too. 36 degrees

[dendrite]

39 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Probably more than me, I’d imagine the village got smoked today here.  CAD getting it done in your area.

1500ft still seemed like half a foot around here as of an hour or two ago.

32.5° right now. I’m afraid I won’t even get a warm sector this time. 

[tamarack]

Hanging close to 32 and the first bunch of rain is tapering off.  Some accretion but not having much effect on trees except changing twig colors.  If/when we get serious warming, the current 3" won't have much staying power as the last 2 events (3,2" total) were each 20:1.  Maybe the older frozen stuff between the grass blades will persist a bit longer, but I think anything white on the ground on 12/25 will be new snow. 

[jculligan]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

Yep, we are just about wiped out here again. Clean slate yet again.

At least there is nothing left for the cutters and warmth next week to take.

Been a lousy season for holding pack so far. Things look to change on the 18th.

It's been very interesting comparing these last two seasons. The Mount Washington Valley is doing MUCH better with "snowpack" this early season compared to last year. Last year, the valley wasn't whitened for the first time until 12/17. This year, the valley has had snowcover since 12/2 and yesterday's 2" brought the snow depth up to about 5-6" right on the valley floor. Looking at the mesonet obs, it looks like they are still holding at 32F so doubtful there's been much melting yet. We don't have as much on the ground at 1500' so it'll be interesting to see if any of the snow has survived at that elevation when I arrive home tomorrow morning.

[PhineasC]

13 minutes ago, jculligan said:

It's been very interesting comparing these last two seasons. The Mount Washington Valley is doing MUCH better with "snowpack" this early season compared to last year. Last year, the valley wasn't whitened for the first time until 12/17. This year, the valley has had snowcover since 12/2 and yesterday's 2" brought the snow depth up to about 5-6" right on the valley floor. Looking at the mesonet obs, it looks like they are still holding at 32F so doubtful there's been much melting yet. We don't have as much on the ground at 1500' so it'll be interesting to see if any of the snow has survived at that elevation when I arrive home tomorrow morning.

IIRC, the December 5th storm last season hosed you guys, right? I got about 15" or so of heavy cement from that which jumpstarted the pack here (until Grinch).

No big storms here yet. 5.5" on Black Friday and 5" this past Wed.

The Black Friday event was all upslope fluff here. I basically missed entirely on the synoptic portion that gave Alex 8" or so (I think that was his total). So it just didn't hold up when some warmth appeared a few days later. That snowfall had some serious staying power down by Alex.

It has definitely been torchier here so far this season than last season. No idea why. Snow has been getting vaporized very fast here. No complaints, though. Over 20" so far which is more or less on track. Snow has been in the air quite frequently.

Only second season here so I am still learning which events torch me and which events I stay colder/snowier than most others. It can be very different than Alex, PF, and your spot.

[dryslot]

36 minutes ago, dendrite said:

32.5° right now. I’m afraid I won’t even get a warm sector this time. 

31 here, Been a slow uptick on temps.

[backedgeapproaching]

50.1F here..think the grass got a shade greener...lol.

[PhineasC]

Now, just as an interesting data point, I am 38 right now and Alex is 54. LOL

Looks like winds are still mostly out of the east which is not a torch direction for me.

[OceanStWx]

40 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Now, just as an interesting data point, I am 38 right now and Alex is 54. LOL

Looks like winds are still mostly out of the east which is not a torch direction for me.

I wonder if winds are downsloping off the Whites and mixing out that inversion.

[PhineasC]

8 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

I wonder if winds are downsloping off the Whites and mixing out that inversion.

Yeah, makes sense that would torch Alex's area on an east wind.

[J.Spin]

18 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

It has definitely been torchier here so far this season than last season. No idea why. Snow has been getting vaporized very fast here. No complaints, though. Over 20" so far which is more or less on track. Snow has been in the air quite frequently.

Only second season here so I am still learning which events torch me and which events I stay colder/snowier than most others.

Even though it’s only your second season there, one thing that’s been blatantly obvious this season is that you’ve “matured” a lot in your understanding of your site’s climate, and the NNE mountain climate vibe in general.  Last season you appeared stressed about every event that wasn’t 100% snow, but this season you just seem to roll with the frequent storms and weather changes like a seasoned NNE vet.  And, your appreciation of our bread and butter refreshers seems to be growing as well.  The climate up here really is nothing like the Mid-Atlantic, NYC, or much of SNE, where the season can often consist of a lot “waiting” for the right synoptic storm or pattern to hit.  I can see how in that sort of climate, if you’re looking for snow (for recreation, livelihood, or whatever) it could be stressful when it melts because you never know when it might come back.  Up here, there’s almost always another chance at winter weather just around the corner, even if it’s not some sort of synoptic monster.  The fact that you’ve had frequent snow cover and 20 inches of snow already this season, in what everyone seems to refer to as a really poor general pattern for snow, can attest to that.  My records show we’ve already had 14 accumulating storms up here so far this season, and we’re only a third of the way through December.  That’s also with an October that was rather warm and didn’t contribute the typical storm or two.

While the snow climatology up here is amazing, our climate still isn’t 100% snow from every storm, all the time.  As I always say, I like to describe the climate here as giving us at least some snow/frozen from just about every storm once we get to December.  That’s sort of how it’s been thus far, with even the warm-sector storms giving us a bit of something.  This storm has definitely had some front-side frozen for some of the NNE folks, but as PF mentioned earlier, this system might be one of those exceptions for some sites.  The back side just doesn’t seem to have much snow potential with it, although I do see a bit of snow in the forecast for the higher elevations.

[alex]

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Probably more than me, I’d imagine the village got smoked today here.  CAD getting it done in your area.

1500ft still seemed like half a foot around here as of an hour or two ago.

I always say how the local differences in my area are interesting, with a few miles making a huge difference but today reminded me of how extreme those differences are around Mansfield. It’s essentially bare ground in the village and all along Mountain Rd then you get to 100 yd before the turn for the Spruce Peak area and boom… its like half a foot. It’s very cool to see. 

[alex]

4 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

Even though it’s only your second season there, one thing that’s been blatantly obvious this season is that you’ve “matured” a lot in your understanding of your site’s climate, and the NNE mountain climate vibe in general.  Last season you appeared stressed about every event that wasn’t 100% snow, but this season you just seem to roll with the frequent storms and weather changes like a seasoned NNE vet.  And, your appreciation of our bread and butter refreshers seems to be growing as well.  The climate up here really is nothing like the Mid-Atlantic, NYC, or much of SNE, where the season can often consist of a lot “waiting” for the right synoptic storm or pattern to hit.  I can see how in that sort of climate, if you’re looking for snow (for recreation, livelihood, or whatever) it could be stressful when it melts because you never know when it might come back.  Up here, there’s almost always another chance at winter weather just around the corner, even if it’s not some sort of synoptic monster.  The fact that you’ve had frequent snow cover and 20 inches of snow already this season, in what everyone seems to refer to as a really poor general pattern for snow, can attest to that.  My records show we’ve already had 14 accumulating storms up here so far this season, and we’re only a third of the way through December.  That’s also with an October that was rather warm and didn’t contribute the typical storm or two.

While the snow climatology up here is amazing, our climate still isn’t 100% snow from every storm, all the time.  As I always say, I like to describe the climate here as giving us at least some snow/frozen from just about every storm once we get to December.  That’s sort of how it’s been thus far, with even the warm-sector storms giving us a bit of something.  This storm has definitely had some front-side frozen for some of the NNE folks, but as PF mentioned earlier, this system might be one of those exceptions for some sites.  The back side just doesn’t seem to have much snow potential with it, although I do see a bit of snow in the forecast for the higher elevations.

Well said JSpin. I used to be so anxious about snow. A few years after moving up here it changed. When you’re in SNE seeing your snowpack wiped out is really, really sad. Up here, you can watch in awe as the temperature goes from single digits to the 50s and your pack gets wiped out, knowing that within a few days it will start building back up. It’s a much easier life for a weenie

[dendrite]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

31 here, Been a slow uptick on temps.

Down to 32.3°. 

[powderfreak]

51 minutes ago, alex said:

I always say how the local differences in my area are interesting, with a few miles making a huge difference but today reminded me of how extreme those differences are around Mansfield. It’s essentially bare ground in the village and all along Mountain Rd then you get to 100 yd before the turn for the Spruce Peak area and boom… its like half a foot. It’s very cool to see. 

This is a snow pocket up here at the ski area for sure.  And I always laugh when folks talk about local differences… hard pressed to find a town border with more variations within the boundary than Stowe IMO.

At 3pm I could see the fields in town looked pretty bare, but the Edison Hill and Robinson Springs area of million dollar homes still had healthy cover it looked like.  Area in background of this photo.