Vermont Snow Updates 2010-11

[rfarren]

After a substandard start, Vermont's ski season has been doing quite well. This will be 4 consecutive "A" weekends, not that common an occurrence. Usually there's at least one rain/spoiler weekend over a one month stretch.

The majority of the EC has benefitted from the lack of rain over the last month or so.

[berkshireskier]

After a substandard start, Vermont's ski season has been doing quite well. This will be 4 consecutive "A" weekends, not that common an occurrence. Usually there's at least one rain/spoiler weekend over a one month stretch.

The majority of the EC has benefitted from the lack of rain over the last month or so.

So true, no real "January thaw" or heavy rain events for the past four or five weeks from central New England north and plenty of snow events. Some of the best snow conditions in 15 years. However, moderate rain this afternoon in central NE into southern VT, but temps right around freezing, so no huge loss of snow from this event and actually softened up the snow surface some. Two more snow storms predicted for this week.

[j howard]

i'd say some of the best conditions since 2001... ugh and i busted my arm falling down the front steps, of course

upstate NY has been particularly good. even during the early snow drought, we've had a ton of lake effect. i'd even say the conditions here were better a couple weeks ago. lol, probably worth the drive down from VT! it was so cold that the lake effect was like rockies powder. i've had more than one knee deep day. that, and there's enough base to ski in the woods anywhere you want, you just have to watch where the bands are going. unfortunately, the groundhogs day storm for us was 6" of snow and a bunch of ice. just a bit to the north in the adk's was just fine. hit or miss as usual around here! if the temps are in the low teens and there's lake effect, look to greek peak and plattekill. temps in the low 20's and east west winds: snow ridge season's not over yet, i'll be back

[J.Spin]

I've added a couple of my updates below for the current storm cycle, more storm details from this exciting storm are available in the NNE thread at Americanwx.com.

Saturday, Feb 5, Evening update:

We were up at Bolton today, and conditions were nice. This midweek storm wasn’t entirely ultra light Champlain Powder™, so this powder has seemed to settle down and consolidate a bit quicker that some snowfalls. Temperatures were probably around 30 F, and it was really comfortable on the slopes. In the morning we had blue skies, which gradually transitioned over to clouds as the next system approached.






Sunday 2/6/2011 6:00 A.M. update:

Waterbury event totals: 7.6” Snow/0.99” L.E.

The overnight snow here came in very synoptic-like in density, right on at 10.0% H2O. It’s certainly down from yesterday’s snow density, not surprisingly since that stack had some snow grains/sleet. Below I’ve added in the 24-hour snow totals I’ve seen for Vermont ski areas that have updated this morning, listed north to south:

Jay Peak: 12”
Smuggler’s Notch: 10”
Stowe: 11”
Bolton Valley: 11”
Mad River Glen: 11”
Sugarbush: 10”
Pico: 7”
Killington: 7”
Okemo: 3”
Bromley: 3”
Magic Mountain: 3”
Mount Snow: 0”

Not every area has reported in yet, but there’s a salient north to south trend in snow accumulations. Presumably this is in association with the mixed precipitation cutting down the snow totals, as I’m seeing some of the southernmost resorts indicating icing of the lifts. In general though, this has been another nice synoptic shot for the mountain snowpack; if we picked up just about an inch of liquid equivalent down here in the valley, then the surrounding resorts must have received at least that amount.

Some details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations are below:

New Snow: 3.1 inches
New Liquid: 0.31 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 10.0
Snow Density: 10.0% H2O
Temperature: 27.5 F
Sky: Flurries
Snow at the stake: 29.0 inches

[berkshireskier]

Latest storm on Sunday was a total bust here in Central New England. Started off as some snow showers but then quickly turned to rain and rained moderately hard for a few hours. I would estimate .5 to .75 of water fell, with temps just above freezing. Totally saturated the snowpack and then temps went below 32 over night, so this morning slopes were frozen crust all over. Conditions went from an A/A- to C-/D+ overnight. UGH!! We either need some more snow or temps to hit 40 or above to soften up the frozen surface. Prediction is for some snow (1 to 3 inches) Monday night into Tuesday, but looks like the bigger storm later in the week is going out to sea south of NE.

[rfarren]

Latest storm on Sunday was a total bust here in Central New England. Started off as some snow showers but then quickly turned to rain and rained moderately hard for a few hours. I would estimate .5 to .75 of water fell, with temps just above freezing. Totally saturated the snowpack and then temps went below 32 over night, so this morning slopes were frozen crust all over. Conditions went from an A/A- to C-/D+ overnight. UGH!! We either need some more snow or temps to hit 40 or above to soften up the frozen surface. Prediction is for some snow (1 to 3 inches) Monday night into Tuesday, but looks like the bigger storm later in the week is going out to sea south of NE.

I was at gore which got some frozen rain last night. They got some snow afterwards. I thought it skied great today. I would've given it an A or A- for crocker's criteria. The trees were super super fun. Once everything was skied everything was super soft and nice.

[berkshireskier]

Farther south, it was all rain from the storm. Never turned back to snow. So when they groomed the trails over night and it went below freezing, the corduroy froze into a solid crust. It was literally rattling my fillings on the first few runs this morning. And there were "death cookies" on many of the trails. Without a doubt, the worst conditions of the year. Giving the skiing conditions a grade of D+ would be charitable.

[rfarren]

Farther south, it was all rain from the storm. Never turned back to snow. So when they groomed the trails over night and it went below freezing, the corduroy froze into a solid crust. It was literally rattling my fillings on the first few runs this morning. And there were "death cookies" on many of the trails. Without a doubt, the worst conditions of the year. Giving the skiing conditions a grade of D+ would be charitable.

What area were you skiing?

[jamesdeluxe]

Farther south, it was all rain from the storm. Never turned back to snow. So when they groomed the trails over night and it went below freezing, the corduroy froze into a solid crust. It was literally rattling my fillings on the first few runs this morning. And there were "death cookies" on many of the trails. Without a doubt, the worst conditions of the year. Giving the skiing conditions a grade of D+ would be charitable.

I was at Windham in the Catskills for my son's ski lesson. It was the exact same there -- gorgeous conditions yesterday (so I heard) followed by an afternoon downpour that turned everything to concrete today. Ugh.

[rfarren]

Head up to the daks. They are sublime right now.

[Tony Crocker]

My chart is based upon the northern half of Vermont. I've commented both there and elsewhere that other regions in the east are much less reliable. Events like this weekend are Exhibit A of why that is so. Being on the right vs. wrong side of a rain/snow line even a few times per season makes a huge difference.

[berkshireskier]

So true, Tony. Northern VT, northern NH, and northern ME are in a totally different climate zone than central and southern New England. As with this past storm, they tend to avoid (more frequently) the storms that begin as snow, change to sleet and then go over to rain that seem to plague weather in the Northeast. We've been lucky so far this winter in most of New England to have avoided most of these types of storms but our luck ran out on Saturday. It is always disheartening when one rainstorm ruins what has been 4 to 5 weeks of very good skiing. More snow is predicted for tonight which will help.

[rfarren]

Again, where were you Berkshire skier?

[berkshireskier]

I was skiing in the Southern Berkshires, but, from what I could tell by looking at the radar on Saturday afternoon, it looked like the freezing rain went as far north as southern to middle VT (but it's possible the radar was wrong). I'd be interested to hear reports from anyone skiing Sunday from Killington on south to know what the conditions were truly like.

[rfarren]

I was skiing in the Southern Berkshires, but, from what I could tell by looking at the radar on Saturday afternoon, it looked like the freezing rain went as far north as southern to middle VT (but it's possible the radar was wrong). I'd be interested to hear reports from anyone skiing Sunday from Killington on south to know what the conditions were truly like.

Gore got some freezing rain sandwiched by snow on Saturday night too, but skied really really well. Many of those areas had a bit of freezing rain but also got quite a bit of snow as well. I think that the areas where it was straight rain got hit quite a bit worse than the other places. The places that got freezing rain also got some snow as I understand it and should ski pretty decently this upcoming weekend.