Anyone Locking in Trips Yet?

TRWstock":1m0v9zuw said:
Really? I always felt like VT does pretty well with most Nor'Easters. If NH/ME always get more snow from coastal storms, why do their annual snowfall averages fall much lower than the mtn's along the Northern Green mtn spine? I have yet to be in ME (quite the venture from Long Island), but heck - if there's a true coastal storm that misses VT and dumps in Maine, perhaps this is my year to trek eastward.
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vermont snow totals are higher because most winter storms in new england come from the great lakes region or from the west. the nor'easters give vermont snow as well, but not like maine and nh get. sometimes maine will be on the cold side of a front as well giving maine a bunch of fresh and northern vermont all rain as happened on feb 13th this past winter. then again maine can be on the warm side. the great thing about new england is that so many things can be happening all at the same time in so many different places only a relatively short drive away. i live on the nh seacoast, ski wed/thurs/fri and decide each week where to go based on the current patterns/snowfall/corncycles and it changes sometimes every week. alot of times i ski south of 89 in nh cuz they tend to get freak storms while jay is high and dry. and like two winters ago when most skiers swear that winter didn't arrive till the valentines day blizzard, well a month before that saddleback was already a full on winter wonderland serving up freshies and zero crowds, so that's where i skied. eastern skiing is all about flexability and having spent full winters in utah as a 7 day a week skier, i love skiing here just as much cuz often times ya never know where it's gonna be great till ya make that last second decision from yer gut when yer at the junctions of rte 93/89 or 16/95.
 
The correlation of Sugarloaf annual snowfall to both Stowe and Killington is 54%. While this is significant, it is much lower than most correlations of western areas at comparable distance. FYI 54% is the regional correlation between the Sierra and Idaho/Wyoming/Montana. In general only the Pacific Northwest and western Canada have low correlations to other western regions.

Another example where the numbers support the careful observations of long term skiers. And another reason why, in general, it is not smart to tie yourself to one ski area in the East.
 
true dat! and i have yet to see a mid/late april/early may when any vermont ski area had anywhere near the base that sugarloaf has even with the loaf getting half of the snow that vermont gets. preservation baby. saddleback gets 50-100 inches more than the loaf gets in a winter and it's only like 10 miles as the crow flies away. they keep huge spring snow over there.
rog
 
on feb 12th last year, a tuesday, lesley and i b.c. skied on mt cardigan on a bluebird day with 10 inches of fresh. the plan was to head to stowe from cardigan, near plymouth nh to hit a storm the next day. on our way to 93 to "cut over" to vermont, i made some calls to my special weather folk and they said "go east" it's warm to the west and maine will get all snow. so sunday river it would be. i called my buddy dave, the rsn dude there and told him to get the camera ready, les and i are coming. well, good choice. 10 inches throughout the day, my favorite kind, and rain in vt all the way to sutton que.
les and i had fun skiing the great off the map woods and even open stuff that stayed fresh all day. up the volume and let r load
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_WZbNrliIA
rog
 
It seems to me, the most pertinent factor for east coast ski quality is the rain line. Sugarloaf is pretty far north and east. Often times, storms come up from the south where the western part of the storm is carry warm weather and rain. Then it can be advantageous to be off to the east or even further south and east. This may account for the pretty decent snow preservation at the loaf and sunday river, even if they don't get the same quantity of snow as vermont.
 
This winter I am definitely going to pay more attention to the snowfall amounts across New England with every storm that passes. Some of the discussion above definitely intruiges me, and I never really focused outside of what was happening in VT, unaware that the rain snow line may vary so much. Conventional meteorological wisdom would suggest that in any "inland runner" low moving up the coast, the further east you are, the more prone you are to a southerly flow off relatively warm waters of the atlantic, greatly increasing the chances of a changeover to rain; with locations further west typically remaining colder. I know sometimes there is a slice of cold air that "wedges" down the east with a storm that heads into the great lakes.., but doesn't this typically erode as the storm moves further north and inland, eventually changing all locations in New England to rain? I suppose if there is a transfer of energy to a newly forming low offshore, this above may not happen.. true?
 
I think rfarren has it right that the key is the rain/snow line, which tends to be geographic in the East vs. altitude related in the West. The average rain/snow line is parallel to the coast, which is why southern New England and MASH suck most of the time, with conditions usually worse than Southern California and much worse than northern New England or Quebec.

But there is huge variability in that rain/snow line for each storm. Sometimes it's a north/south divide, sometimes east/west, and often a lot of movement as the storm progresses. IMHO your eastern weather forecasters like powderfreak earn their keep. It appears to me to be a more complex job than out here.
 
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