Allenson Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Quite the frontal passage last night around here. Left Hanover in the upper 30s with a few spritzles of rain (hadn't felt drops in many weeks till yesterday!) and by the time I hit 1000', the northwesterlies were howling and the snow was ripping. It only snowed hard for a half-hour or so, leaving 1/4" but man that wind was impressive. Our house is in an elevated valley that is oriented WNW--ESE. The winds were at the perfect point on the compass to roar down our valley last night. Sometimes we're a bit sheltered if it veers more true NW but not so yesterday. The trees were really swingin' & swayin'. High yesterday was 45F and the low this morn, 4F. Pretty good plunge right there. Lost 2" of snowpack--down to 25". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaineJayhawk Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Yes fellas I think we are setting up for another good run. Eric you have 22? I have 23. You were getting screwed for a while, so good to see your pack so high. Roofs cleared? Mine is but the melting has turned my 300 ft driveway into an absolute ice rink. Can't even walk the dog, she just slips. I hate this phase...we get it every winter. Need some freshies soon! Yup, 22" of icy whiteness. I can't stand on it like the SNE guys can, though. My roof is slowly coming around but there's a long ways to go. I'm hoping it'll be clear after el torcho. I'm sure it will be. Driveway and walkway are a disaster and has been since the freezing rain event a ways back. But they always are in winter despite my best efforts, so this is no surprise. I'm not real big on dropping salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I'm not real big on dropping salt. I hear ya on that one. Salt drives me crazy--the crap they spread on the roads too for that matter. It does little but ruin vehicles in my eyes. Spread some sand and everyone slow the hell down instead of peddle to the metal, balls to the wall, 24/7/365. Our road/driveway isn't too bad after yesterday--pretty much stayed snow covered and even got a fresh gluing of white last evening. It's a north-slope in aspect so it doesn't get much direct sun.... I have three barrels of sand set-up in strategic locales along the drive. There've been days when we couldn't have gotten out without sand. Hanve't spread sand once yet this year and nor did I last year. Two years ago though, I spread quite a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Doc has it as well, And if it trends (and they usually do) north like the last one did, We will be in the bullseye but i would not want to see that until at least sunday We're doomed. GFS for MBY went from near nothing at 06z to 0.75-1.0" qpf at 12z. My driveway ice responds nicely to wood ashes, always being produced so always at hand. (Have to be sure they're cold, though, as I store them in plastic 5-gal buckets, one of which has duct tape over a melt-hole.) Ashes aren't anywhere near as useful in fresh snow as is sand. However, when the drive is like a bottle, especially a wet bottle, give me the ash bucket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 We're doomed. GFS for MBY went from near nothing at 06z to 0.75-1.0" qpf at 12z. My driveway ice responds nicely to wood ashes, always being produced so always at hand. (Have to be sure they're cold, though, as I store them in plastic 5-gal buckets, one of which has duct tape over a melt-hole.) Ashes aren't anywhere near as useful in fresh snow as is sand. However, when the drive is like a bottle, especially a wet bottle, give me the ash bucket. Just as i hoped would not happen....... We get a 100 mile shift north, It will be over Vim Toot by next tues.....lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 topped out at 25 inches OTG this morning. not bad for a winter of nickel and dimes and no real big storms, and so in that vein, nothing too outstanding either. wonder if that will be my peak value for this year.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mica Vim Toot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I hear ya on that one. Salt drives me crazy--the crap they spread on the roads too for that matter. It does little but ruin vehicles in my eyes. Spread some sand and everyone slow the hell down instead of peddle to the metal, balls to the wall, 24/7/365. Our road/driveway isn't too bad after yesterday--pretty much stayed snow covered and even got a fresh gluing of white last evening. It's a north-slope in aspect so it doesn't get much direct sun.... I have three barrels of sand set-up in strategic locales along the drive. There've been days when we couldn't have gotten out without sand. Hanve't spread sand once yet this year and nor did I last year. Two years ago though, I spread quite a bit. Sand is nice. Wood stove ashes are best. You're gonna have 'em anyway- they come pre-installed when you buy or cut firewood. Instant and absolute traction on glare ice. Just a dusting will do it. An unwalkable surface becomes velcro the moment ashes are deployed. Heavier application in sunlit areas brings melt. Be sure to distribute down-wind and, close your eyes if it's windy. Free too. You have to get rid of them anyway. Ok, ashes make a mess when tracked inside. "Take off your damn boots when you come in!" -your wife. Ashes rule. Vim Toot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mica Vim Toot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Been busy. Rode the storm yestiddy. My rocket-ship and I were lost in space. Found my way home. The fields are tough during big snows- old trails disappear so it's hit-or-miss, mostly miss. Didn't get stuck once! Came very close twice. Sheesh. CAR says we got 11". We had that during my ride back to the Vim Toot estate at 1900 last night. It snowed till 0400- mod/light but accumulating. Seeing as it's impossible to judge now I have chosen to measure the new snow myself. I got 13". My Blizzy-stick says so. The winter-long war over the Vim Toot mailbox continues. The plow man hates my mailbox. Here is my mailbox survival strategy: Build a snow levee up-plow of my poor mailbox. Here is how it looks for the evil plow man: This one's for Bahk: And now, my stunning, unique and handsome rocket ship: My tractor friend and I cleared the snow this morning. 72" bucket makes quick clean work. Here is one of my poor little guest sleds. Yes, people visit us. My wife mostly... She's sinking. Time to man the shovels. Interesting look at the the effects of our capricious Aroostook County winds: Both sleds rode out the storm together. Time to ride/get stuck. Vim Toot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organizing Low Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 nice pics Tooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Beautiful pica Tootsie, here we were feeling bad for you, egads you are loaded with snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Also, J.Spin, I can't believe you only had a little wind at your location and not enough to effect measurements. You're wind-sheltered location is great for snowfall because I could see this fluffy snow piling up quite nicely in a calm environment... but in this wind the snow isn't able to build any loft. I was actually a little worried about last night’s accumulation in terms of wind, since we were getting a few small gusts even down in the yard. As I watched the first flakes settle on the elevated board after the 8:00 P.M. clearing, I could see that there was at least a little wind blowing them across the surface. Even in our location that happens at times, but when the board is freshly cleared, depending on how slick one’s board surface is, that can be a critical time for setting up an accurate accumulation of the next round of snow. Once the first flakes sit down, they seem to aid in appropriately capturing the flakes that follow, but even with just a little breeze of a few MPH, it can seem like the flakes don’t want to take hold, and if that is delayed, it could suppress an accurate accumulation. The lighter and drier the flakes are, the lighter the breeze that can affect them. After about the first tenth of an inch was down last night, the accumulation was looking a bit patchy, and I thought that I might end up getting a better measurement off my ground-based board, but in the morning the elevated board had a really clean inch on it. That measurement was corroborated by my ground-based board, and ironically the elevated board worked the best. Because of the fluffy snow, my ground-based board was sitting a bit below the surrounding snow surface (the fluffy snow cannot support the weight of the board so it sinks in). The ground board actually had some slight drifting for a few inches around the edges, because the sharp edge of snow from where the board sunk into the snowpack was just too fragile to hold up even to a gentle breeze. As is usually the case though, the bulk of the board had a nice even accumulation that matched with the elevated board. Sometimes, I will wipe away and smooth out that sharp edge from where the ground-based board has cut into the powder, to ensure that the edges of the board don’t get that drifting, but this prep work takes additional time and as I suspected, it didn’t really matter for last night’s accumulation. While it only matters in some events, I’d argue that the lack of wind certainly plays a role in the snowfall numbers derived from my location. While some other locations might be getting wind-blasted fragments of dendrites, they may be in better shape in our area without the wind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 My driveway ice responds nicely to wood ashes, always being produced so always at hand. ( Wood stove ashes are best. You're gonna have 'em anyway- they come pre-installed when you buy or cut firewood. No shortage of ashes here either. Stove runs 24/7 from November through April or so. I'll use them in the part of the driveway nearest the house but for 1/4 mile up, the sand barrels take over. I only need to use anything after a thaw and refreeze. Just pure plowed-down snow isn't an issue with 4x4 and good tread. Nice picture shootin' Toot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I was a little low with my estimate of 2-4" on the mountain last night. It was probably more like 3-8", in all honesty. Snowboards were useless today but given the elevation dependency of the snow yesterday afternoon (snowed above 2,000ft all afternoon, snow level hit 1,500ft by 4pm, and 800ft by 6pm) and evening, there was a much larger than normal gradient on the mountain. 3,600ft picked up a considerable amount of snow and above 2,000ft I'd say it was 4"+, with only 2-3" at 1,500ft. Just to prove how good of a spot for snowfall J.Spin is in, I've noticed his snowfall and snowpack measurements are very similar to what we get at 1,500ft on the east side of Mansfield... and he is at only 495ft. It really shows how much it pays to be located right in the path of the actual Green Mountain spine. And I don't doubt his measurements; I drove through his area for several years and know that there is a 1-2 mile stretch of the Winooski Valley (where it passes through the spine axis) that just gets crushed a lot more than surrounding areas. Anyway, here are some pictures from today... Parking lot at 1,500ft at 5:30am with around 2" of wind-blown snow in it... it was still snowing steadily at the time and also blowing very steadily. Blurry photo, but its always nice to be greeted by an 18" drift at the door to the office.... Snow stopped around 7am and the sky cleared quickly after that... leading to a bluebird powder day. Nothing like another day of riding a bunch of fresh overnight snow at the mountain... new snow was more like 8-10" in here. It always surprises me how much snow this mountain can get sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Been busy. Rode the storm yestiddy. My rocket-ship and I were lost in space. Found my way home. The fields are tough during big snows- old trails disappear so it's hit-or-miss, mostly miss. Didn't get stuck once! Came very close twice. Sheesh. CAR says we got 11". We had that during my ride back to the Vim Toot estate at 1900 last night. It snowed till 0400- mod/light but accumulating. Seeing as it's impossible to judge now I have chosen to measure the new snow myself. I got 13". My Blizzy-stick says so. The winter-long war over the Vim Toot mailbox continues. The plow man hates my mailbox. Here is my mailbox survival strategy: Build a snow levee up-plow of my poor mailbox. Here is how it looks for the evil plow man: This one's for Bahk: And now, my stunning, unique and handsome rocket ship: My tractor friend and I cleared the snow this morning. 72" bucket makes quick clean work. Here is one of my poor little guest sleds. Yes, people visit us. My wife mostly... She's sinking. Time to man the shovels. Interesting look at the the effects of our capricious Aroostook County winds: Both sleds rode out the storm together. Time to ride/get stuck. Vim Toot! Your snowpack is catching up quickly to the rest of the areas toot......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mica Vim Toot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Your snowpack is catching up quickly to the rest of the areas toot......... Yeah. Now what am I gonna gripe about? Tough ground blizzards today. Ran some fields, put some trails back in. If you go off the trail in places you're gonna drown. Sort of. What weenie wouldn't want to go that way? Vim Toot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Yeah. Now what am I gonna gripe about? Tough ground blizzards today. Ran some fields, put some trails back in. If you go off the trail in places you're gonna drown. Sort of. What weenie wouldn't want to go that way? Vim Toot! Thats why i have a long track toot, For off trail exploration if need be, But the riding has been awesome, We need to freshen up the pack down here getting very mealy and hard.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VtWeatherWatcher Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 great shot PF! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzucker Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Toot...great pictures. I haven't been up to Northern Maine since I was 12 and went to Baxter to hike Katahdin with my dad, but that's some gorgeous scenery. Looks very mountainous around you and nice to see the glittering fresh snowpack compared to the dirty patches of icy snow we have down here.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahk_webstah Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yup, 22" of icy whiteness. I can't stand on it like the SNE guys can, though. My roof is slowly coming around but there's a long ways to go. I'm hoping it'll be clear after el torcho. I'm sure it will be. Driveway and walkway are a disaster and has been since the freezing rain event a ways back. But they always are in winter despite my best efforts, so this is no surprise. I'm not real big on dropping salt. oh the traumas of a new england winter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahk_webstah Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yup, 22" of icy whiteness. I can't stand on it like the SNE guys can, though. My roof is slowly coming around but there's a long ways to go. I'm hoping it'll be clear after el torcho. I'm sure it will be. Driveway and walkway are a disaster and has been since the freezing rain event a ways back. But they always are in winter despite my best efforts, so this is no surprise. I'm not real big on dropping salt. oh the traumas of a new england winter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mahk_webstah Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Tootsie I love your pics and your mailbox is extra special. I fear you would so disappointed if you met me though....Priscilla Queen of the Desert isn't quite my style... Glad you have joined the 2 ft club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lava Rock Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 what's the long term (next 2 weeks) looking like? other threads aren't so gung-ho on snowy pattern coming back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzucker Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 what's the long term (next 2 weeks) looking like? other threads aren't so gung-ho on snowy pattern coming back. Looks pretty certain there'll be a trough in the West (-PNA) with some cold air in Canada, so we might see some SW flow events that could benefit Northern New England particularly. There should be a sharp cold front Saturday after the warm weather, and then we'll get into this gradient pattern with pieces of energy ejecting out of the western trough, which could lead either to pure lakes cutters, as the GFS shows, or more of a SW flow/overrunning pattern which gives the Northeast some snow. Latitude will be a factor in this pattern as the SE ridge is predicted to stay somewhat intact with a neutral NAO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Nice inversion this morning here in Stowe... +10F at 3,600ft top of FourRunner Quad +2F at 1,500ft base of ski area -3F at 800ft in village Today is only the 2nd snowless 24 hour period we've had so far in February. No new snow has been recorded since 6am yesterday. Bummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 +10F at 3,600ft top of FourRunner Quad +2F at 1,500ft base of ski area -3F at 800ft in village -5 here this morning at 1200'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adk Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Nice inversion this morning here in Stowe... +10F at 3,600ft top of FourRunner Quad +2F at 1,500ft base of ski area -3F at 800ft in village Today is only the 2nd snowless 24 hour period we've had so far in February. No new snow has been recorded since 6am yesterday. Bummer. That's amazing. Too bad it's going from -3 with 15 stragith days of snow to 48 and foggy. Bummers. Lets hope for the best. Sticking to groomed trails this weekend might tbe way to go ....not sure much will be "fluffy" in the woods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorEaster27 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 That's amazing. Too bad it's going from -3 with 15 stragith days of snow to 48 and foggy. Bummers. Lets hope for the best. Sticking to groomed trails this weekend might tbe way to go ....not sure much will be "fluffy" in the woods. I may be crazy but I am holding out for a few inches of snow on Saturday at the face, looking to ski it on sunday when the winds calm down. Saturday could be rough at all the mountains with the wind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 16, 2011 Author Share Posted February 16, 2011 Still pretty chilly out. 12° and cloudy. BTV is 25° and MVL is 21°. Cold air hanging tough, I wonder if we'll reach 32° as predicted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpsonsbuff Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Mega bust with today's highs... kinda like Monday, but in the opposite direction. Here at KLEB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Mega bust with today's highs... kinda like Monday, but in the opposite direction. Here at KLEB. Yeah, cold air hanging tough right now. The wedge is in place--warming up along the coastal plain and west of the Greens but not so much in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.