Northeastern U.S. Weather

Tony Crocker said:
The relationship of temperature to altitude is clear cut. The 1C rise in temperature we have seen in the past 50 years translates to 500 feet of elevation. So barring something unusual about the microclimate we can probably say that it rains for example now at 7,000 feet at Tahoe as much as it rained at 6,500 feet in the 1970's.
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Anecdotally, I feel that this is now occurring in Denver too. Virtually never had rain as part of winter storms (~mid-Nov - end of March) even 20 years ago; but in a warm winter like this one, a fair number of storms have some or even significant rain mixed in, usually in the early part of storms. The good news of course being that most of Colorado has quite a lot of altitude margin for most ski resorts.

As far South as Denver appears to be on a map, latitude wise Denver is roughly equal to Philly/Baltimore or in Europe would be a touch South of Madrid, Spain. But with the altitude and interior rocky mountain climate of course.
 
EMSC said:
Anecdotally, I feel that this is now occurring in Denver too.
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Cities have urban heat island effect, which can be much more than the average 1C temperature rise, especially at night. L.A. high temperature records are fairly well distributed over the entire record since 1884. L.A. low temperature records are very rare in recent decades. I can't help but think the SoCal ski areas take a hit from being downwind of such a massive urban area. And the closer in San Gabriel Mt. areas that get more precipitation seem to have more of a rain problem than farther removed Big Bear. Today is probably going to be the SoCal ski areas' 9th rain day of the season. Average since 1978 is 4.3; max through 2016 was 9. Since then: 13 in 2016-17, 12 in 2018-19 and 13 last year. These are unofficial seat-of-the pants estimates by me, so it is possible that before the start of my website reporting in 1996 that I might have missed a few here and there.
 
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A few years ago when we had the condo in Stowe,we got hit with the warmest heat wave. AC units sold out immediately. This was a first for vt. You couldn't buy an ac anywhere. We were put on a wait list at home depot and finaly got one.
Things have changed.
 
Massive temp drop Wednesday night...so while 2 to 4 inches predicted...it will be on top of solid ice. Windchill values down to 30 below..then back to 40s for the weekend.
Today was spring skiing...the whole front 4 opened.
Chin clip was fun.
 
And what it looks like today...nope...no interest
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I always think the Northeast is variable.

Growing up in NY State (Binghamton/Poughkeepsie/Armonk), outside of a few storms - it's always snow/rain/freeze/warm temps/zero degrees. Never great. I do not remember any 'good old days.' It was always marginal. If you got below freezing for 14 days - a good season.

Even living in a snowbelt at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, in the 90s - the snow was average/bad 3 of 4 years. Not much different than today. Never great. I also was on Ski Patrol and a Ski Instructor at the Dartmouth Skiway (retired from ski racing before 20), so I was up there a few days/afternoons a week. Maybe a good week, but mostly just ok. On a handful of days, we could get to Mad River, Stowe, and Jay in good conditions. Most often to Okemo (I know, but 50% off tickets for college students, putting it in the $20s) or Killington.

And before you get apoplectic...remember Boston is still setting records! I visited in Winter of 2015, looked like Val d'Isere, Mammoth, and Revelstoke - Boston had 4-10 ft snowbanks. Global cooling?

During the 2014–15 winter season, Boston broke its all-time official seasonal 107.6-inch (2.73-meter) snowfall record from the winter of 1995–96, with a total snowfall record of 108.6 inches (2.76 m) as of March 15, 2015
 
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This is the first winter..I'm almost giving up on here. Thankfully we're hitting utah beginning of the month and Aspen end of the month...
In between....packing!
 
ChrisC said:
It's 70f in Chicago and Rochester!
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Had a friend back in the 90's when in grad school at Buffalo that went on winter break in Florida. When he got on the plane in early Jan to fly home the pilot announced that the temp in Buffalo was actually several degrees warmer than in Miami. Both temps were in the 70's.

Point is its probably more frequent in recent years, but not something new.
 
in early oct 2023 i drove to Halifax NS. Temps low 70s throughout eastern Canada that week. Gorgeous. In late Oct I drove to Panama City FL temps in low 70s when I arrived. What gives?!? Then it warmed to low 80s for rest of my time in FL. And the world felt normal again:)
 
Forecast went from dire..to ..not as dire?
Still going to be a thousand below zero..but it will preserve the snow..for the next warmup.
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While not quite as much as what's forecast for CA, a few weeks ago on @Harvey's forum, we were talking about the Feb 2010 event, where the Catskills ended up with eight feet. Ultimately, it was more about bragging rights than actual skiing enjoyment. I see that @kingslug was there too.

Jason's infamous pic:
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Me: thigh-deep at the bottom of Plunge
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Photo by @NYSkiBlog
 
That 8 footer at Hunter was the most snow I have ever seen fall in that period of time.
Incredibly difficult to ski it..almost impossible.
Couldn't see at all..easily 3 to 4 inches per hour.
Those were the days
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jasoncapecod said:
Totally impossible to ski, but it was wild at Platte... did you take part in the infamous death march from the west side?
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I started skiing thursday..got hotel..jeep buried to the roof the next morning. Laughed at everyone digging their cars out..I had big AT tires..just pulled out and drove to hunter..chest deep..amazed the lifts were running.
Went to work saturday..so I missed the whole debacle....picked up my first pair of wide skis that I ordered at jfk fed ex pick up area.
Skied sunday...really skied as they were 98 wide twin tips.
Moguls the size of suv's
Never forget it.....
 
Jay's report today:
Windy, wavy, weird weather today. 3-4” of snow landed on the mountain, even though the wind did blow it around a bit. The sun is now out for an unexpected bluebird day. It’s also cold, like bundle up and cover all exposed skin cold with a high of 9 degrees at noon. The rain last night didn’t stick around long last night before switching over to snow
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While the Northern Vermont areas were at 90% a month ago, now they are in the 80's. The rest of the Northeast is much worse so the estimated average is 78%, which would be about a 15th percentile season if it stays that low. This will likely be the 4th consecutive year under 85% in the Northeast. The worst by far were 2015-16 at 56%, 1979-80 at 59% and 2011-12 at 67%.
 
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