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Rocktober Obs/DISCO


40/70 Benchmark
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22 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Just had to look.  I found 3 years in which October pack persisted, the earliest start date coming in 1976 when measurable cover began on 10/14.   MWN's coldest November helped keep the snow.  October 2005 had 78.9" and the depth reached 32", but late November warmth melted it all, with Dec 1-2 w/o measurable.

Ahh, so 3 years but that’s a long dataset.

Crazy that 78” can fall in October and still melt in November.  Its hard to hold onto snow even at 6K feet.

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23 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Ahh, so 3 years but that’s a long dataset.

Crazy that 78” can fall in October and still melt in November.  Its hard to hold onto snow even at 6K feet.

oceanwx was pointing out the other day that negative retention has become a kind of climate signal in and of itself.  

not sure what the feedback spectrum really is but it's easy to make plausible.  the types of snow that are falling may be getting paradoxically lower in water - like it snows fluffier in cold air, to greater depths, but then a 'beef event' rains into the more gossamer snow pack and it's thus less resilient... etc. just spit-balling.  one could almost holistically intuit that may be related to the same idea/observation in how globally, glaciers have been retreating, too -

but either way, he was saying that the good old days ... a snow event or two, then a rain ... and the snow would absorb to refreeze and then the next snow layers ... etc.  now more often even a deeper snow pack gets vanquished.

i'm wondering if his office has really made that observation numeric, and in/of doing so ... what the temperatures in the low level are before and after the changes in the pack behavior.   interesting -

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2 minutes ago, Hazey said:

Pack retention is gone the way of the Dodo bird. Enjoy it when it falls....if it falls.

 

One of the things I secretly enjoy, is the way a nice pack looks at sunset. Reminds me of when I was a kid, and I had to come in and get ready for supper, after sledding. Just something about the way it looks as daylight wanes.

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1 hour ago, jbenedet said:

Above freezing is one thing. But to lose a pack, for days is much higher threshold up there this time of year, but as PF mentioned; not uncommon.

They don’t usually get much over 2-3ft pack even at the peak of winter because of BLSN and sublimation. If you wanna talk Tucks and the other bowls that’s a different story. 

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40 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

This is peak foliage weekend. Colors in the valley right now are on fire!

I can’t believe we actually get a 70° dry clear weekend to enjoy it.  We often get that October leaf grinch screaming Sou’Easter right at the heart of peak foliage.

Nice! We're a little past here at elevation, peaked early this week. Oaks are now starting. Looking forward to 4-6" from a leaf blizzard. 

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1 hour ago, Hazey said:

Pack retention is gone the way of the Dodo bird. Enjoy it when it falls....if it falls.

Lol…such a ridiculous statement. Ya 2003, (2010 in the Mid Atlantic even) 2011, 2013, 2015, and even 2021 was so long ago when retention was seen.  

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1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

 

One of the things I secretly enjoy, is the way a nice pack looks at sunset. Reminds me of when I was a kid, and I had to come in and get ready for supper, after sledding. Just something about the way it looks as daylight wanes.

That pinkish hue if the sky is clear....I agree with you very peaceful.

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33 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Lol…such a ridiculous statement. Ya 2003, (2010 in the Mid Atlantic even) 2011, 2013, 2015, and even 2021 was so long ago when retention was seen.  

Overall retention is down though. Sure we can get some stretches, but the trend line is down. But, I've always been an individual storm guy. I know things are viewed differently maybe up north, but personally it's always been the storms. Of course if I could have the option of retention I'd obviously take that too.

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Maples are passing peak now, oaks are starting. 33 low, 60 high here today. First freeze the night before (Wed-Thu) Hi 54, low 31. We've had some frost on grass and roofs for the last three nights. Warm spell coming. Maybe this will be our winter. Cold snaps followed by warm spells. Snow then melt/rain. Kinda of like its always been with exceptions here and there (more warmish ones in the past few years). Even with the over all climate warming trend, it will probably be the same just a couple of degrees higher--especially at night.

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14 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Overall retention is down though. Sure we can get some stretches, but the trend line is down. But, I've always been an individual storm guy. I know things are viewed differently maybe up north, but personally it's always been the storms. Of course if I could have the option of retention I'd obviously take that too.

I’ve seen good stretches and bad stretches my whole life. Never saw anything even close to 2011 and 2015 in my whole life.  Never did we ever have to shovel roofs ever in my life, but we did those two years. So imo it’s up and it’s down. It’ll be back again at some point. 

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9 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

I’ve seen good stretches and bad stretches my whole life. Never saw anything even close to 2011 and 2015 in my whole life.  Never did we ever have to shovel roofs ever in my life, but we did those two years. So imo it’s up and it’s down. It’ll be back again at some point. 

Could also just use snow depth days to actually figure it out.  Not saying your memory is wrong but anecdotal memories can be tough to judge climate trends.

My guess is overall SDD are down but there are still some big spikes mixed in for big winters that memory latches onto.

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38 minutes ago, jbenedet said:

I’m about done with this mountain peak snowpack topic but looking at the EPS and GEFS it looks brown up there through early November. 
 

Really warm stretch. 

That's ok..... Let the dry, mild and brown stretch go through early November. It's December on that we want to see some changes. Fingers crossed ( and with a little lunch from mother nature ) we will see Winter kick in!

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3 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

 

One of the things I secretly enjoy, is the way a nice pack looks at sunset. Reminds me of when I was a kid, and I had to come in and get ready for supper, after sledding. Just something about the way it looks as daylight wanes.

Yea too bad those days are very few and far between these days SOP.

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51 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Could also just use snow depth days to actually figure it out.  Not saying your memory is wrong but anecdotal memories can be tough to judge climate trends.

My guess is overall SDD are down but there are still some big spikes mixed in for big winters that memory latches onto.

SDDs have been holding up okay here, but our wooded site holds snow well.  Last winter's low SDDs were due to both warmth and having 42% of its snow after the equinox, an SDD killer.  All by itself, 23-24 lowered our running 5-year SDDs from 110% to 84%.  (Dropping 18-19, 2nd highest and 196% of average, was a bigger factor than last winter's 67%.)  22-23 had 117% SDDs and the 3 winters 16-17 thru 18-19 averaged 158%.   Temps are definitely rising and at some point we'll average consistently lower SDDs, but I'm not sure if it's now.

 

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