NNE Cold Season Thread 2024-2025

[J.Spin]

10 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Lots of bread and butter post storm too!

This is probably the only thread that gets much discussion about the weather nuances in the Northern Greens, so I hadn’t even heard mention of much in terms of a bread and butter pattern, but I scrolled through the past couple of runs of the GFS, and it does have that look. The past couple of runs show the following parade of systems:

1)    Nov 28-29: System passing through SNE

2)    Nov 29-Dec 4: LES

3)    Dec 5-6: Clipper

4)    Dec 6-7: Clipper

5)    Dec 9: Clipper/Coastal System

6)    Dec 11-12: Coastal System

7)    Dec 13-14: LES

There aren’t too many days in there without snow. Of course, those later events from a deterministic model are subject to plenty of change, but the general idea is there. A vertically-stacked low pressure system sitting over Northern Maine or the Canadian Maritimes is certainly a favorite setup around here, but those don’t happen every day, and they don’t often sit for too long. Having that closed upper low over Hudson Bay with broad upper level troughing is also a great setup when you have a 4,000’ wall of mountains sitting downwind of a moisture source like the Great Lakes. The BTV NWS is talking about it in their short-term discussion:

Area Forecast Discussion

National Weather Service Burlington VT

852 AM EST Thu Nov 28, 2024

SHORT TERM /FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/...

As of 419 AM EST Thursday...The closed upper low over the southern part of the Hudson Bay along with broad upper troughing across the Eastern US will be our main weather driver in the short term and beyond. West-southwesterly flow will continue to bring a lake effect snow band over `Dacks and the northern Greens, with the southeastern parts St. Lawrence County seeing a snow band persisting throughout Saturday and even into Sunday.

You never know quite what we’ll get over here in the Northern Greens out of the potential LES setups, since the wind direction is critical and you have to have enough moisture to carry the distance, but it never hurts to have Mother Nature spraying plentiful moisture in the general direction of your local orographic wall. And the temperatures of the lakes are apparently nice and warm, so that’s good. The long-term discussion continues with mentions of some of the potential winter events in the queue:

LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY/...

As of 419 AM EST Thursday...Lake effect snow will continue into Sunday before the Lake Ontario band slides south of the CWA as the flow shifts to the northwest as the broad troughing finally moves eastward. With the northwesterly flow, snow showers in the high terrains will continue through the first half of the week. Global models show an upper trough sliding out of Central Canada and into our region late Wednesday and into Thursday which looks to be our next impactful round of snow. Temperatures will be unseasonably cold as daytime highs will be in the 20s and low 30s with overnight lows in the teens to low 20s for the long term.

As I’ve mentioned before, I find the GFS seems to represent these bread and butter patterns well with respect to the Northern Greens – it just seems more cognizant of the terrain presence/influences than the other global/medium-range models for whatever reason. One doesn’t need to dig too much into it, just pop open the GFS, run through the panels, and you have a good idea of when some of the best days will be with respect fresh snow so that you can plan ahead with respect to your ski schedule.

[bwt3650]

This is probably the only thread that gets much discussion about the weather nuances in the Northern Greens, so I hadn’t even heard mention of much in terms of a bread and butter pattern, but I scrolled through the past couple of runs of the GFS, and it does have that look. The past couple of runs show the following parade of systems:
1)    Nov 28-29: System passing through SNE
2)    Nov 29-Dec 4: LES
3)    Dec 5-6: Clipper
4)    Dec 6-7: Clipper
5)    Dec 9: Clipper/Coastal System
6)    Dec 11-12: Coastal System
7)    Dec 13-14: LES
There aren’t too many days in there without snow. Of course, those later events from a deterministic model are subject to plenty of change, but the general idea is there. A vertically-stacked low pressure system sitting over Northern Maine or the Canadian Maritimes is certainly a favorite setup around here, but those don’t happen every day, and they don’t often sit for too long. Having that closed upper low over Hudson Bay with broad upper level troughing is also a great setup when you have a 4,000’ wall of mountains sitting downwind of a moisture source like the Great Lakes. The BTV NWS is talking about it in their short-term discussion:
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Burlington VT
852 AM EST Thu Nov 28, 2024
SHORT TERM /FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/...
As of 419 AM EST Thursday...The closed upper low over the southern part of the Hudson Bay along with broad upper troughing across the Eastern US will be our main weather driver in the short term and beyond. West-southwesterly flow will continue to bring a lake effect snow band over `Dacks and the northern Greens, with the southeastern parts St. Lawrence County seeing a snow band persisting throughout Saturday and even into Sunday.
You never know quite what we’ll get over here in the Northern Greens out of the potential LES setups, since the wind direction is critical and you have to have enough moisture to carry the distance, but it never hurts to have Mother Nature spraying plentiful moisture in the general direction of your local orographic wall. And the temperatures of the lakes are apparently nice and warm, so that’s good. The long-term discussion continues with mentions of some of the potential winter events in the queue:
LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY/...
As of 419 AM EST Thursday...Lake effect snow will continue into Sunday before the Lake Ontario band slides south of the CWA as the flow shifts to the northwest as the broad troughing finally moves eastward. With the northwesterly flow, snow showers in the high terrains will continue through the first half of the week. Global models show an upper trough sliding out of Central Canada and into our region late Wednesday and into Thursday which looks to be our next impactful round of snow. Temperatures will be unseasonably cold as daytime highs will be in the 20s and low 30s with overnight lows in the teens to low 20s for the long term.
As I’ve mentioned before, I find the GFS seems to represent these bread and butter patterns well with respect to the Northern Greens – it just seems more cognizant of the terrain presence/influences than the other global/medium-range models for whatever reason. One doesn’t need to dig too much into it, just pop open the GFS, run through the panels, and you have a good idea of when some of the best days will be with respect fresh snow so that you can plan ahead with respect to your ski schedule.

Completely agree. Gfs seems to lock onto these patterns best from a few days out. If this was mid winter and lots of terrain was open, this would be the pattern that makes this area special with daily refills of 3-4” every morning to keep things skiing great. The temps mean local ski areas should be able to do some major expansion fast. It looks like a late, but promising start!


.

[bwt3650]

Gfs has been consistent with this band hitting the northern greens tnrw night for several runs now..



.

[J.Spin]

21 hours ago, J.Spin said:

This is probably the only thread that gets much discussion about the weather nuances in the Northern Greens, so I hadn’t even heard mention of much in terms of a bread and butter pattern, but I scrolled through the past couple of runs of the GFS, and it does have that look. The past couple of runs show the following parade of systems:

1)    Nov 28-29: System passing through SNE

2)    Nov 29-Dec 4: LES

3)    Dec 5-6: Clipper

4)    Dec 6-7: Clipper

5)    Dec 9: Clipper/Coastal System

6)    Dec 11-12: Coastal System

7)    Dec 13-14: LES

 

10 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Gfs has been consistent with this band hitting the northern greens tnrw night for several runs now..

#1 on that list of potential upcoming events finished up overnight, so we’re moving on to #2, and that should be the activity to watch over the next few/several days.

It looks like that event is starting to move into the area – precipitation was just some flurries here this morning at observations time, but the snowfall is starting to pick up a bit and the radar shows some moisture moving toward the Greens.

[mreaves]

Reporting in from Aroostock County, Maine. About 6” here. 

[J.Spin]

With the Thanksgiving winter storm wrapping up overnight, today was clearly a day to get out for some skiing, but I wasn’t initially sure where I was going to go. The storm seemed to be more potent further south based on observations that I’d seen, as well as images from mountain cameras like the Okemo snow stake webcam and the Sugarbush snow stake webcam – they both showed about a foot of new snow at elevation. We’d been watching Bolton Valley’s webcams throughout the storm, and the resort was certainly getting some decent accumulations, but Bolton doesn’t have a specific snow stake webcam and it was a bit difficult to get a feel for just how much they’d received from the wider views. This morning, I perused a variety of mountain webcams from around the state, and in the end, there didn’t seem to be all that much difference in practical base area accumulations and coverage between what I was seeing at Bolton and the various resorts father south. I also checked on how much liquid equivalent was in the new snow, since that has such a big impact the quality of the skiing, and while the Vermont CoCoRaHS numbers seemed to be around 1.00 inches of liquid to our south, we’d picked up over 0.6 inches of liquid in the snow that fell at our house in the valley, so I’d expect Bolton Valley to have picked up at least that much. With some base snow already in place at Bolton, that felt like plenty of snow for some good touring and turns.

Overall, the decision ended up being relatively easy, and I headed up to Bolton around midday. Down at the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road at 340’, new snow accumulations were just spotty, with areas of grass visible, but by the time I hit the Village at 2,000’, I found 6 to 8 inches of fresh snow, so the skiing prospects were looking good. I ascended by the Wilderness Uphill Route, and the skin track was nicely set. I probed snow depths throughout the tour, and by the time I hit the Wilderness Summit at roughly 3,150’, depths were in the 12 to 14-inch range. Above 2,000’ there was already existing snowpack in place, so the higher-elevation snow depths I measured on today’s tour weren’t necessarily all from this most recent storm, but here’s the detailed snow depth profile from today:

340’: T-1:

500’: 1”

1,000’: 2”

1,200’: 2-3”

1,500’: 3”

2,000’: 6-8”

2,250’: 8-10”

2,500’: 10-12”

2,750’: 11-13”

3,000’: 12-14”

Although the precipitation from this storm was 100% snow even at our site at 500’ in the valley, temperatures were around freezing down low, so the accumulations were quite dense. That wasn’t the case up on the mountain though – the snow was considerable drier, and the powder was of good quality. It was clearly sub-10% H2O powder, and if I had to guess it was probably in the 8% H2O range above 2,000’. I’d brough mid-fat skis today since I was initially unsure of how deep the powder was going to be and how good the overall coverage would be, but one could easily go with fatter skis if they wanted. With some existing dense base snow in place, even black diamond terrain was easily in play today. You’ll still want to be on mowed, on-trail terrain though – I suspect that venturing onto anything with too many obstacles would find you hitting things below the base. And the trees are still not ready yet – the base isn’t deep enough to cover the typical obstacles in the woods. Today’s powder turns were great though, and the snow was dry enough that even low-angle terrain was fun. Fat skis could help there for a bit more planing and speed if you’re on the fence about what width to shoot for.

Thanks to our upwind friend Lake Ontario, snow was falling the entire time I was out touring. For most of the tour the snowfall was of varying light intensity depending on whether a larger pulse of lake moisture was hitting the spine or not, but it jumped up to borderline heavy snowfall when I was leaving a bit before 2:00 P.M. There was a good shot of moisture hitting the mountain at that point and the top half of the Bolton Valley Access Road had taken on enough accumulation that people were really taking their time on the descent. With the lake effect snow event taking place right now, we’ve had about another inch of new snow down here in the valley, so I suspect they’ve had at least another couple of inches up at the resort. And there’s more moisture pushing into the area this evening based on the radar, so there should be some additional freshening of the powder surfaces for tomorrow.

[J.Spin]

I told my wife about how good the skiing was yesterday, so she was interested in getting out and the two of us headed up to Bolton Valley today for another tour. Thanks to the ongoing lake-effect snow from Lake Ontario, surfaces have been getting some nice refreshers. Since my report detailing the snow during yesterday’s tour, we’ve had another inch or two of additional snow down at the house in the valley, so I’m sure Bolton has had at least that much as well. It was really dumping when I left yesterday afternoon, so that period alone should have contributed some nice accumulations.

Between settling and the additional snow that’s been falling, snow depths seemed to be just about where they were yesterday, so just refer to the detailed snow depth profile I posted in that post for approximate snow depths that were out there today. Temperatures were in the mid-20s F out on the mountain early this afternoon, so it was just a bit cooler than yesterday, and consistent with that, the snow was a bit drier. Whereas yesterday I estimated the upper layers of powder in the snowpack to be in the 8% H2O range, today I’d say we were hitting powder that was more in the 6 to 8% H2O range. My wife is notorious for getting out on the snow one day too late when conditions aren’t as good as the day before, but that wasn’t the case this time. While there were a few more tracks out there today than what I found yesterday, the dry air and drier snow falling kicked the quality of the powder up a notch. The existing base snow, the continued settling of the lower layers of surface snow, and new rounds of dry snow coming in have set up some beautiful right-side-up powder. The drier nature of the powder was evident in the way it was even easier to ski lower-angle slopes; I’d brought fat skis to help in that regard, but my wife was on mid-fats, and she had no issues maintaining speed on even the mellowest pitches. So once again, essentially any mowed terrain from roughly single black diamond pitch down to gentle slopes was in play for great powder turns today.

In terms of the ongoing snowfall, today was much like yesterday with continued light snowfall of varying intensity throughout our tour, and it was steadier when we were finishing up our descent, but not nearly as heavy as when I was leaving yesterday. The direction of the more intense incoming moisture from Lake Ontario seemed to be a bit more to our north today, but it sounds like the Jay Peak area has been doing well from that setup.

 

[dmcginvt]

XOXOX Jspin.  Here in waterbury center it just keeps snowing.  Here and there.   We are getting a tiny feed off Lake ontario.  Just enough moisture.  Im only at 820 and on a leeward side of bolton.   but I know the upper elevations are doing better.   I love our microclimates.  

[dmcginvt]

Bought a pass at Stowe for the first time in 6 years after breaking my leg playing hockey.  Cant wait to ski.  

[J.Spin]

6 hours ago, dmcginvt said:

XOXOX Jspin.  Here in waterbury center it just keeps snowing.  Here and there.   We are getting a tiny feed off Lake ontario.  Just enough moisture.  Im only at 820 and on a leeward side of bolton.   but I know the upper elevations are doing better.   I love our microclimates.  

Indeed, it’s been great to have the on and off snow over the past few days. I haven’t seen anything too crazy in terms of snowfall rates down here at our site in the valley, but it’s been nice to have flakes in the air and keep things white on top of the snow from the Thanksgiving storm. And as usual, the mountain elevations have been kicking it up a few notches with respect to the snowfall and accumulations from the moisture that Lake Ontario has been sending over. We’re certainly lucky to have that additional moisture source upstream to improve the ski climate/conditions around here, and the past few days have been a nice example of that benefit. Stack that on top of what our mountains do with typical northwest flow, plus synoptic systems, and it’s a good recipe for consistent snows.

Things seem generally on track with respect to the discussion that bwt and I were having about what the GFS showed in the coming week or so, and coincidentally, the synopsis from the BTV NWS forecast discussion happens to touch on an assortment of our common snow sources including LES, northwesterly flow, and a clipper:

Area Forecast Discussion

National Weather Service Burlington VT

658 AM EST Sun Dec 1 2024

.SYNOPSIS...

A lake effect snow band will continue to bring periods of heavy snowfall to southern St. Lawrence County and portions of the western Adirondacks through today. If your travel plans include driving along Highway 11 in southern St. Lawrence County and areas to the south, travel will be difficult. Lake effect snow will come to an end tonight. After a mostly dry day Monday, northwesterly flow snow showers will develop over higher terrain Monday night before a clipper type system brings gusty winds and more snow chances to the North Country around Thursday.

[bwt3650]

Storm cycle total..should fire up again tnrw, but I figured I’d call this for thanksgiving through last night, since today is mostly just occasional flurries. The upslope far outperformed the storm system itself…




.

[eduggs]

Is that persistent band near Franklin County Airport in Vermont typical with these setups? It looks like some Lake Champlain enhancement from the Ontario LES band. The low elevation also probably enhances the reflectivity relative to the terrain due to better line-of-sight. I feel like I've seen that feature before, but I don't usually look carefully for it. There doesn't seem to be any mention in the NWS BTV forecast.

Kinda cool.

 

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

Storm cycle total..should fire up again tnrw, but I figured I’d call this for thanksgiving through last night, since today is mostly just occasional flurries. The upslope far outperformed the storm system itself…

Nice, it’s great to see what Jay Peak can do with that lake moisture, even at that distance from Lake Ontario.

It’s been fairly quiet around here this morning with respect to snowfall, but it’s picked up a bit now with the recent surge on the radar. I’d been seeing that feature that eduggs brought up, and it looked interesting; it’s not something we typically see with these as far as I know (the orientations of the moisture bands are typically more east to west vs. north to south), so I’m not sure if there is a specific cause, but we’ll see if the BTV NWS decides to mention it in their discussion at some point.

[bwt3650]

Is that persistent band near Franklin County Airport in Vermont typical with these setups? It looks like some Lake Champlain enhancement from the Ontario LES band. The low elevation also probably enhances the reflectivity relative to the terrain due to better line-of-sight. I feel like I've seen that feature before, but I don't usually look carefully for it. There doesn't seem to be any mention in the NWS BTV forecast.
Kinda cool.

 

I’m far from an expert, but my experience is radar will never show what’s going on in this area well. It’s all about the flow…it’s been snowing almost non stop for 3 days here and very little shows up. If bands are approaching the orleans county border, we’re usually snowing well.


.

[eduggs]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

I’m far from an expert, but my experience is radar will never show what’s going on in this area well. It’s all about the flow…it’s been snowing almost non stop for 3 days here and very little shows up. If bands are approaching the orleans county border, we’re usually snowing well.


.

That's awesome about the semi-continuous snow up there. Those periods are the best when you never know how much snow will fall and for how long.

The Green Mountains clearly block the radar beam in that region, which makes local observations all the more critical. Modeling seems to have correctly predicted an extension of the Lake Ontario LES band into the northern Greens. But since there was little on the NY side, I gotta figure that the snow at low elevations on the VT side was due to either Champlain enhancement or some kind of low level convergence.

[wxeyeNH]

I wanted to post an update on new webcams and mesonet stations in the White Mountains.  Mt Washington is expanding it's  mesonet stations.  New ones on the west side of the mountain.  Loon has finally installed 4 webcams at different elevations on the mountain.  Bretton Woods has cams as well as one on top of Cannon that is on the Mt Washington site. Waterville Valley has 2.  For people like me this is all great news as I can get a better picture as what is going on to my north and you can see freezing levels with the mesonet. .  Last year I made a donation to Mt Washington so they could install a north facing cam.  They just contacted me again to see if I would be able to donate so they would have a west view too in a new window.  If that happens, they would have summit cams in all 4 directions.  I guess the cams bring in a lot of views.

[alex]

10 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

I wanted to post an update on new webcams and mesonet stations in the White Mountains.  Mt Washington is expanding it's  mesonet stations.  New ones on the west side of the mountain.  Loon has finally installed 4 webcams at different elevations on the mountain.  Bretton Woods has cams as well as one on top of Cannon that is on the Mt Washington site. Waterville Valley has 2.  For people like me this is all great news as I can get a better picture as what is going on to my north and you can see freezing levels with the mesonet. .  Last year I made a donation to Mt Washington so they could install a north facing cam.  They just contacted me again to see if I would be able to donate so they would have a west view too in a new window.  If that happens, they would have summit cams in all 4 directions.  I guess the cams bring in a lot of views.

The Cog has a good one as well at their base station (I believe that’s about 2200ft of elevation)

[Len Ticular]

8 hours ago, alex said:

The Cog has a good one as well at their base station (I believe that’s about 2200ft of elevation)

 

8 hours ago, alex said:

The Cog has a good one as well at their base station (I believe that’s about 2200ft of elevation)

2690'

[borderwx]

Mountains keep squeezing for a few more inches, seems like forever since we had a Dec cycle like this. I have terrible short term weather memory though. The transition to ski season has been an enjoyable one thus far


.

[J.Spin]

I was recently alerted that we’ve been put under a Winter Weather Advisory for the next system coming through the area. Here along the spine of the Northern Greens, I see that the BTV NWS Event Total Snowfall map currently has some areas of 8-12” and 12-18” shading.

[J.Spin]

I hadn’t been up to the mountain since Saturday, so I was eager to get out for a ski tour when I had time today. There’s been no specific synoptic storms in the area, but the snow has been piling up the thanks to the continuous feed of moisture off the Great Lakes and the upper-level low pressure to our north. Seeing the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake quickly jump up to near 20 inches is a strong sign that it’s been snowing around here. Having that closed upper low over Hudson Bay with broad upper level troughing is a great setup when you have a 4,000’ wall of mountains sitting downwind of a moisture source like the Great Lakes.

Even without data from the Mt. Mansfield stake to go on, I know it’s been snowing because we’ve recently had several inches of new snow down at our place in the valley, so the snow is hitting all elevations with the current temperature regime. Indeed, I found that snow depths were up substantially at all elevations during today’s tour. I toured again using the Wilderness Uphill Route, so I was able to check snowpack depths from the valley on up and compare them to what I’d last seen on Saturday. The updated snow depths are below, with Saturday’s depths listed first, then today’s depths following in bold. The depths I found up at 3,000’ and above are certainly consistent with what is being reported for the snowpack depths at the Mt. Mansfield stake.

340’: T-1: --> 1-2”

500’: 1” --> 2”

1,000’: 2” --> 3-4”

1,200’: 2-3” --> 4-5”

1,500’: 3” --> 6-8”

2,000’: 6-8” --> 8-12”

2,250’: 8-10” --> 10-14”

2,500’: 10-12” --> 12-16”

2,750’: 11-13” --> 14-17”

3,000’: 12-14” --> 16-18”

Concomitant with the increasing depths, the quality of the powder skiing even jumped another notch relative to the already great conditions we experienced on Saturday. In fact, even though it’s excellent right-side-up powder that is beautifully dry, it’s getting deep enough that it’s starting to be a bit too much for the lowest angle slopes if you’re in fully untracked snow. I’d brought my 115 mm fat skis for today’s tour because they had already been a good choice on Saturday, but I was glad to have them for planing more efficiently on the lowest angle slopes today.

Indeed, it was snowing today during my tour akin to what’s been happening for the past several days, but today’s snowfall was lighter and less consistent than what I experience on Friday or Saturday. Our next Clipper system is coming into the area though, so snowfall should pick up with that. We’re under a Winter Weather Advisory here along the spine of the Northern Greens, the latest BTV NWS Event Total Snowfall map currently has some areas of 8-12” and 12-18” shading.

[Boston Bulldog]

Looks like a Champlain enhanced snowband has been hitting the App gap and Camels Hump area pretty hard this evening. Sneaky little disturbance tonight ahead of the main clipper has been enhancing upslope production.

These unstable upper level arctic troughs sometimes don't deliver down south, but the mountains will always find ways to cash in.

 

[Froude]

How the hell did Jay pull 10-14" from this last night?  Not exactly their classic setup.@bwt3650 you up there?

[bwt3650]

How the hell did Jay pull 10-14" from this last night?  Not exactly their classic setup.[mention=10397]bwt3650[/mention] you up there?

It wasn’t 10-14 last night…I don’t know where they are getting that.


.

[DavisStraight]

On 12/3/2024 at 9:58 PM, J.Spin said:

I hadn’t been up to the mountain since Saturday, so I was eager to get out for a ski tour when I had time today. There’s been no specific synoptic storms in the area, but the snow has been piling up the thanks to the continuous feed of moisture off the Great Lakes and the upper-level low pressure to our north. Seeing the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake quickly jump up to near 20 inches is a strong sign that it’s been snowing around here. Having that closed upper low over Hudson Bay with broad upper level troughing is a great setup when you have a 4,000’ wall of mountains sitting downwind of a moisture source like the Great Lakes.

Even without data from the Mt. Mansfield stake to go on, I know it’s been snowing because we’ve recently had several inches of new snow down at our place in the valley, so the snow is hitting all elevations with the current temperature regime. Indeed, I found that snow depths were up substantially at all elevations during today’s tour. I toured again using the Wilderness Uphill Route, so I was able to check snowpack depths from the valley on up and compare them to what I’d last seen on Saturday. The updated snow depths are below, with Saturday’s depths listed first, then today’s depths following in bold. The depths I found up at 3,000’ and above are certainly consistent with what is being reported for the snowpack depths at the Mt. Mansfield stake.

340’: T-1: --> 1-2”

500’: 1” --> 2”

1,000’: 2” --> 3-4”

1,200’: 2-3” --> 4-5”

1,500’: 3” --> 6-8”

2,000’: 6-8” --> 8-12”

2,250’: 8-10” --> 10-14”

2,500’: 10-12” --> 12-16”

2,750’: 11-13” --> 14-17”

3,000’: 12-14” --> 16-18”

Concomitant with the increasing depths, the quality of the powder skiing even jumped another notch relative to the already great conditions we experienced on Saturday. In fact, even though it’s excellent right-side-up powder that is beautifully dry, it’s getting deep enough that it’s starting to be a bit too much for the lowest angle slopes if you’re in fully untracked snow. I’d brought my 115 mm fat skis for today’s tour because they had already been a good choice on Saturday, but I was glad to have them for planing more efficiently on the lowest angle slopes today.

Indeed, it was snowing today during my tour akin to what’s been happening for the past several days, but today’s snowfall was lighter and less consistent than what I experience on Friday or Saturday. Our next Clipper system is coming into the area though, so snowfall should pick up with that. We’re under a Winter Weather Advisory here along the spine of the Northern Greens, the latest BTV NWS Event Total Snowfall map currently has some areas of 8-12” and 12-18” shading.

I spent a long weekend up there right after we got hit with Nemo down here, snowed all 3 days I was there, only about 6-7 inches but it was great.

[Froude]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

It wasn’t 10-14 last night…I don’t know where they are getting that.


.

Thanks for being our boots on the ground. No doubt it's a nice start to the season up there but really wish we could rely on their numbers. I feel like we should crowdfund you to run a covert high road plot in some hidden thicket at 3000'.

[mreaves]

1 hour ago, Froude said:

Thanks for being our boots on the ground. No doubt it's a nice start to the season up there but really wish we could rely on their numbers. I feel like we should crowdfund you to run a covert high road plot in some hidden thicket at 3000'.

Just don’t cut any trees. Big fines for that. 

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, Froude said:

Thanks for being our boots on the ground. No doubt it's a nice start to the season up there but really wish we could rely on their numbers. I feel like we should crowdfund you to run a covert high road plot in some hidden thicket at 3000'.

Let’s do it.  Jay took a bit of a hit today on the webs for that snow report.

Multiple reports of about 5” from people.  I mean 10-14” overnight is like 35dbz snow ripping for 10 hours.

Snowing hard in town in Stowe now.  Lookout Cam averaging 1”/hr past 3 hours.

A lot of convective graupel in this too.

[powderfreak]

Actually Lookout cam near 5” in 3.5 hours.

[powderfreak]

LIGHTNING!  Walking the dog, solid thunder snow.