Vermont Snow Updates 2009-10

Here’s a quick snowfall timeline and conditions update from Waterbury this afternoon:

2:10 P.M.: First Flakes
3:10 P.M.: Onset of steady, light snowfall
3:45 P.M.: Accumulation began

As of 5:20 P.M.:
Storm snow accumulation: 0.5 inches
Sky: Light snowfall, flake diameter ~2 mm
Temperature: 32.7 F
Dew Point: 27.7
Relative Humidity: 86%

At 6:00 P.M. I’ll clear the snowboard and take some core samples for liquid.

-J
 
Summary: 0.9” snow total as of 7:00 P.M. EST

Saturday, December 5th, 2009: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.05 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 12.0
Snow Density: 8.3%
Temperature: 32.7 F
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 28.7 F
Barometer: 1019 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow (Flake diameter 0.2-0.5 mm)
Storm snow total: 0.6 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.05 inches
Current snow at the stake: <1 inch
Season snowfall total: 0.8 inches

I combined three cores off the snowboard and averaged them to get a liquid equivalent of what we’ve received here so far with this event (0.05”). There was a small skim of refrozen material on the surface of the snowboard, but it was very weak and easily incorporated into the cores. Surprisingly, the snow wasn’t all that dense (8.3% H2O) even with the presence of that refrozen coating. Anyway, light snow continues here, with another three tenths of snow accumulation in the last hour (6:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.).

J.Spin
 
The next bunch of storms should be dropping off snow. I think the snow season has officially started!
 
Waterbury Event Totals: 1.5” snow/0.12” liquid equivalent

Sunday, December 6th, 2009: 7:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.9 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.07 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 12.9
Snow Density: 7.8%
Temperature: 28.9 F
Humidity: 80%
Dew Point: 21.7 F
Barometer: 1020 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Mostly Cloudy, Flurries (Flake diameter 3-4 mm)
Storm snow total: 1.5 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.12 inches
Current snow at the stake: 1 inch
Season snowfall total: 1.7 inches

The snowfall had stopped here by about 10:00 P.M. last night, but we did have some lazy flurries coming down this morning when I made observations at 7:00 A.M. In their morning discussion, the BTV NWS office suggests that light snow showers will be around in the northern areas today as a weak shortwave comes through the area, but little if any accumulation is expected. In any event, the weather pattern is certainly feeling like a more typically winter one. The snow from yesterday’s event may have dried out a touch overnight with the decrease in air temperature, coming down to 7.8% H2O or a 12.9:1 ratio. The total liquid captured by our rain gauge for this event was 0.12 inches, in excellent agreement with the two rounds of cores taken from the snowboard. According to the BTV NWS discussion, our next snowfall event appears to be coming through tomorrow afternoon in the form of a clipper holding the possibility for another few inches of snow, and then a bigger storm is expected in the Wednesday-Thursday timeframe.

J.Spin
 
Summary: 0.4” new snow in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:00 A.M. EST

Monday, December 7th, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.4 inches
Temperature: 31.1 F
Humidity: 79%
Dew Point: 23.5 F
Barometer: 1027 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Mostly Cloudy, Flurries (Flake diameter ~4 mm)
Storm snow total: 0.4 inches
Current snow at the stake: 1 inch
Season snowfall total: 2.1 inches

As of yesterday morning, I didn’t think I’d have any new snowfall accumulations to report until potentially this afternoon. However, the Burlington NWS suggested that conditions were ripe for some of the lake effect plumes from the Great Lakes to blow over into our area, so I checked on the snowboard this morning and found four tenths of an inch of new fluff on it. The snowflakes must have been fairly large at some point, because the snowboard had that very bumpy distribution of snow that I see in those instances. There were flurries coming down at that the time of my observations, but they were only in the ½ cm range in terms of diameter. I might have been able to work up a liquid analysis on the accumulation if I had more time and could stack a lot of cores, but it still would have been difficult. The liquid in there was at most a tenth or two of an inch.

The most surprising thing this morning was that there was still snow on the ground as I traveled through Williston and continued toward Burlington, and there’s even snow here on the UVM campus. I was out and about in the Burlington area for much of yesterday afternoon and there was nothing on the ground at that point, so this is clearly new. I’d say the Burlington area picked up a more substantial accumulation that we did out in Waterbury, and even some of the roads in the Burlington area were covered with a frozen coating. Unless there was a hole in snow accumulation over the airport, this accumulation must have ended the runs for latest accumulating snow and longest stretch without snow for Burlington, but we’ll have to see what the NWS data indicate for today.

J.Spin
 
Summary: 0.6” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 5:00 P.M. EST

Monday, December 7th, 2009: 5:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.06 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 10.0
Snow Density: 10.0%
Temperature: 32.0 F
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 28.0 F
Barometer: 1022 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow (2 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 0.6 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.06 inches
Current snow at the stake: 1 inch
Season snowfall total: 2.7 inches

While it wasn’t snowing early this morning in the Burlington area, snow began to fall there by mid morning, and up until about 2:30 P.M. it came down continuously with varying intensity between flurries and light snow before it shut off. That snow wasn’t accumulating though, and as the day wore on there was actually less snow on the ground than there was to start the morning. Around 3:30 P.M. the snowfall had returned, and it’s been snowing since that point. Here in Waterbury it looks like we might have seen the same sort of scenario with snowfall today, since under today’s accumulation there was a layer of refrozen material on the snowboard when I cleared it at 5:00 P.M. I’d describe the current precipitation as steady light snow, bordering on moderate at times, but the flakes are rather small and it’s not accumulating all that quickly.

J.Spin
 
Summary: 1.2” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:00 A.M. EST

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.05 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 12.0
Snow Density: 8.3%
Temperature: 30.7 F
Humidity: 95%
Dew Point: 28.9 F
Barometer: 1025 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow (granular, 1-2 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 1.2 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.11 inches
Current snow at the stake: 1 inch
Season snowfall total: 3.3 inches

When I last checked on the snowboard at around 10:00 P.M. yesterday evening, there had been 0.4 inches of additional snow accumulation since I’d cleared it at 5:00 P.M. The intensity of the snowfall was still in the light range at that point, but notably less intense than it had been earlier in the evening. I figured it would shut off overnight based on the forecast, so I was surprised to find that it was snowing with renewed intensity this morning. The precipitation must have been fairly minimal overnight though to only wind up with an additional two tenths of an inch during that period. The flakes that were falling this morning were very small and granular in nature, which likely contributes to their slow accumulation. There may be a bit of additional accumulation to report this evening however if the snowfall continues at this morning’s rate for any duration. From the look of the BTV radar, there’s still some precipitation coming down the line from the WNW direction. The persistent snow is slowly adding to the valley snowpack, a quick tour reveals that we have about 1-2 inches throughout the yard depending on exposure. It was too dark to get much a sense of what was happening with precipitation on the trip into Burlington this morning, but there’s very light snow falling on the UVM campus, and they have close to an inch on the ground.

In terms of the local Vermont resorts, the more northern ones that have reported in this morning seem to be indicating a rather consistent 4 inches for their 24-hour totals, which should be running totals for this current event:

Jay Peak: 4”
Smuggler’s Notch: 4”
Stowe: 4”
Killington: 2”

J.Spin
 
As of about noontime, the snow and clouds have pulled away here in the Champlain Valley and even in the Northern Greens. The mountains look gorgeous in the sun fresh layer of white. Now that this snowfall event appears to be complete, I checked for any additional mountain totals around here and updated my list from this morning – those northern areas that have done mid morning/midday updates appear to have finished up with roughly 5 inches from this event:

Jay Peak: 5” (11:13 A.M.)
Smuggler’s Notch: 4” (Morning)
Stowe: 5” (10:00 A.M.)
Bolton Valley: 5” (Morning)
Mad River Glen: 8” (Morning)
Sugarbush 4” (12:04 P.M.)
Killington: 2” (Morning)

Mad River Glen’s snow report page would suggest they received 8” up high from this event based on the text from their snow report page:

It's snowing again and we picked up another 1"-2" over night on top of the 4" to 6" yesterday and "earn your turns" season has begun in earnest.

That’s quite a disparate reading from neighboring Sugarbush, but that’s what they’ve currently got on the page.

With the weather this afternoon, it looks like a good time to enjoy this round of snow before the next storm moves in for tomorrow.

J.Spin
 
Waterbury Event Totals: 2.3” snow/0.19” liquid equivalent

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 1.1 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.08 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 13.8
Snow Density: 7.3%
Temperature: 22.1 F
Humidity: 78%
Dew Point: 14.2 F
Barometer: 1030 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Mostly Clear
Storm snow total: 2.3 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.19 inches
Current snow at the stake: 2 inches
Season snowfall total: 4.4 inches

Our current storm seemed to go out with a little extra kick today, as it snowed through mid morning in the Burlington area, and appeared to continue on through midday in the mountain areas before the sun finally came out. I’m not sure if there was any notable accumulation in the Burlington area from this morning, but I was surprised that I didn’t find even a trace of snow on my car at the park and ride near the center of Waterbury. Based on that, I didn’t expect to see any accumulation at the house a few miles to the west, but apparently we got some help from the mountains, because there was over an inch of new snow on the snowboard. The snow had lightened up a bit as well, down to a density of 7.3% H2O, and the compact granular flakes from early this morning had been replaced by dendritic ones. Around here, this event wound up being the largest of the season so far, although it sounds like it will easily be usurped by tomorrow’s system.

We’ll be under a winter storm warning through 10:00 P.M. tomorrow, with snow accumulations expected to be in the range of 5 to 9 inches. As of their latest update, it looks like the BTV NWS has our area down for about 7 inches in their “Storm Total Snow Forecast” graphic, so we’ll see how it turns out.

08DEC09A.jpg


J.Spin
 
I first checked outside at around 5:30 A.M. this morning and it looked like the snow had just started in Waterbury. By around 6:00 A.M., we’d picked up a couple tenths of an inch of snow, and it was definitely coming down hard. The roads weren’t too bad in terms of snow coverage at that point, and while I thought there might be more intense snowfall as I headed west, at Richmond the snowfall wasn’t as vigorous as what I’d seen in Waterbury. Near 7:00 A.M. in Burlington, the snowfall seemed similar to what I’d seen in Richmond, and there was a bit less than a half an inch of new snow on the ground. I spoke to E at around 7:00 A.M. and she said that it looked like we’d accumulated about an inch of snow at the house by that point.

J.Spin
 
J.Spin":2ry2hva8 said:
I first checked outside
Click to expand...
\:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/

Snowing hard outside...started at 6ish.

Tara (7) was stoke to go to school. December in Ottawa without snow isn't fun for kids. I can't wait to hear a few of my neighbours at work to start complaining about this snow this morning. [-( :brick:


Ottawa is expected to received between 15-20cm
Forecast for Montreal is 25-35cm.
Laurentians and up to Quebec/Charlevoix seem to be $$$.

From 4 ski areas open in Quebec, I suspect a few other will open in pretty good way. :mrgreen:
 
I just called in to check on the midday snowfall at home in Waterbury and E said we had about a half a foot and it was still snowing hard. Here in Burlington the snow has really slowed down to just flurries, but I can see that it’s still going pretty strong in the mountains. I grabbed a few accumulations reports from the VT ski areas, listed north to south down the spine. It looks like the mid morning updates were running in the half foot range:

Jay Peak: 3” (9:16 A.M.)
Smuggler’s Notch: 4” (10:10 A.M.)
Stowe: 6” (10:00 A.M.)
Mad River Glen: 3” (8:00 A.M.)
Sugarbush: 7” (9:48 A.M.)
Killington: 9” (A.M. 24-hr total)
Okemo: 5” (A.M.)

J.Spin
 
a solid foot was skied at sunday river today with no wind all day and temps never got above 23 degrees. dumping straight down with maybe 1 out of 4 chairs occupied. the not yet opened full cover snowmaking trails were heli skiing quality. i'm not kidding. good day fer sure.

rog
 
Summary: 7.7” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 8:00 P.M. EST

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009: 5:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 7.5 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.73 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 10.3
Snow Density: 9.7%
Temperature: 35.8 F
Humidity: 74%
Dew Point: 26.4 F
Barometer: 992 mb
Wind: 0-5 MPH
Sky: Light Snow (granular/graupel)
Storm snow total: 7.5 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.73 inches
Current snow at the stake: 9 inches
Season snowfall total: 11.9 inches

The snow stopped around midday in Burlington, and appeared to taper down in Waterbury around 2:00 P.M. Temperatures certainly went above freezing in Burlington in the afternoon, and less so in the mountains, but it was still 35.8 F when I got home around 5:00 P.M. The temperature has been dropping slowly since then though; we’re between 33 and 34 F now. It was good that E was able to check the snow accumulation earlier in the day, because with the temperature above freezing, it had actually settled to below 7 inches by the time I was able to get to it. After I cleared the snowboard we had on and off light showers of graupel and granular flakes during the evening that deposited a couple tenths of an inch of accumulation, but I haven’t seen any sign of sleet or liquid precipitation. Just a few minutes ago I checked outside and we’ve now got light to moderate snow falling comprised of notably bigger flakes (2-5 mm diameter). Looking at the Intellicast Northeast radar there seems to be some additional precipitation upstream, so if I’m still awake and there’s been any notable accumulation by the next 6-hour interval (11:00 P.M.) I’ll make an update.

For those Vermont ski areas that have updated this evening, I’ve listed storm totals from along the Green Mountain spine north to south. Storm totals were generally in the one foot range, with the southern half of the state on the higher end:

Jay Peak: 10”
Smuggler’s Notch: 12”
Stowe: 12”
Bolton Valley: 10”
Mad River Glen: 8”
Sugarbush: 10”
Killington: 13”
Okemo: 14”
Bromley: 14”
Stratton: 14”
Mount Snow: 12”+

J.Spin
 
Waterbury event totals: 7.7” snow/0.73” liquid equivalent

Thursday, December 10th, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.2 inches
Temperature: 36.1 F
Humidity: 85%
Dew Point: 30.7 F
Barometer: 994 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Cloudy, spits of snow
Storm snow total: 7.7 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.73 inches
Current snow at the stake: 8 inches
Season snowfall total: 12.1 inches

With regard to additional snow accumulation, there’s nothing more to report this morning beyond the couple tenths that I mentioned yesterday evening. Temperatures at our elevation (495’) have been marginal, fluctuating a few degrees above freezing, and the snow that has fallen since I last cleared the snowboard at 5:00 P.M. yesterday is just a slushy coating. I didn’t check the water content in it, but I’d say there are a few additional hundredths of an inch, putting the total liquid for the event a bit above the ¾” range. Looking back to when I mentioned our expected accumulation based on the BTV NWS “Storm Total Snow Forecast” graphic from Tuesday:

“As of their latest update, it looks like the BTV NWS has our area down for about 7 inches in their “Storm Total Snow Forecast” graphic, so we’ll see how it turns out.”

…I’d say they were right on the money with regard to how it turned out in our location.

I was worried that I wouldn’t find a good break point to distinguish this event from the potential snow in this Thursday through Saturday period, but it looks things have slowed down enough this morning that it won’t be a problem. With the moisture supply from the lakes, Roger Hill was very bullish on accumulations for the Central and Northern Greens in his broadcast this morning, so we’ll see how much our location gets in on any of that potential snowfall.

J.Spin
 
I recently grabbed this shot (below) of the BTV composite radar because I have the Weather Channel on in the background, and each time it comes up with the local conditions, Montpelier is either reporting light snow, or even snow. It looks like they’re in the line of a real fire hose, and if they’re getting hit I have to imagine that the Mad River Glen/Sugarbush area upstream of them on the spine is getting blasted too. If this band stays parked there it will be interesting to see what MRG/’Bush report for accumulations tomorrow morning.

10DEC09A.gif


J.Spin
 
Summary: 0.8” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:30 P.M. EST

Thursday, December 10th, 2009: 7:30 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.8 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.04 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 20.0
Snow Density: 5.0%
Temperature: 29.3 F
Humidity: 64%
Dew Point: 16.3 F
Barometer: 1000 mb
Wind: ~5 MPH
Sky: Light Snow
Storm snow total: 0.8 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.04 inches
Current snow at the stake: 8 inches
Season snowfall total: 12.9 inches

It was lots of fun watching the snow crash out against the mountains today from the Burlington area, and when I finally got back to Waterbury I found 1-2 inches of fluff on my car at the park and ride. I had just enough time to clean off the snow before the Route 100 commuter bus arrived and I transferred up to Morrisville for the boy’s Christmas concert. Heading north from Waterbury, the new snow really seemed to taper off, and based on what I heard from another parent at the concert, it sounds like the center of Waterbury really got blasted with heavy snowfall in the mid to late afternoon. Apparently they got an inch of two in the span of an hour, so that may be where the accumulation on my car came from. After the concert I was finally able to get home to see what had gone on at our house in terms of accumulation. If the center of Waterbury had an inch or two, I suspected we might have even more at the house as often happens, but there was only 0.8 inches on the board. We must have only been on the fringe of the heavy snowfall. Anyway, the snow is very dry, coming in at 5% H2O, so it is much more in the style of lake effect/upslope than what we received yesterday.

With moisture blowing over from the lakes, some of the local ski areas picked up another nice round of snow accumulations today to add to yesterday’s totals, and for those areas that specified their totals from today, I’ve added them below:

Jay Peak: 7”
Smuggler’s Notch: 6”
Stowe: 3”
Bolton Valley: 5”

Many areas seem to be lumping today’s snowfall in with yesterday’s, but in general it looks like 48-hour totals are in the 1-1.5 foot range up and down the Green Mountain spine.

J.Spin
 
Summary: 1.7” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:00 A.M. EST

Friday, December 11th, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.9 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.03 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 30.0
Snow Density: 3.3%
Temperature: 21.6 F
Humidity: 73%
Dew Point: 11.9 F
Barometer: 1009 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow (2-4 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 1.7 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.07 inches
Current snow at the stake: 8 inches
Season snowfall total: 13.8 inches

There was nothing new on the snowboard last night as of roughly midnight, but even though the major lake-effect band was a bit off to our south, we must have gotten into something because there was a new 0.9 inches of accumulation this morning. As I’d seen based on the hourly observations from Montpelier last night, they did get some snow out of that band. This morning on Roger Hill’s broadcast he noted that the accumulation was of course localized, with some areas around Montpelier picking up 5 inches, and some just a dusting. Also noted was that Duxbury, the town just to the south of us, picked up 7 inches. Roger indicated that the trend is going to be for that band to stay to the south of our area, and gradually shift more southward, but additional accumulations are on the way for areas in the line of that snow.

As expected, that lake effect band dropped a nice coating on Sugarbush, as they are reporting 9 inches of new snow at the summit this morning. That dump puts them on the higher end of what I’ve seen for recent snowfall accumulations from the Vermont resorts, with 24 inches for their 72-hour total, and 29 inches since Sunday.

This lake effect event is supposed to continue today before it winds down tomorrow, but Roger said our next storm is expected to start up on Sunday afternoon. He suggested it could be a 3-6 inch scenario at this point. After that, the NWS suggests there will be another storm cycle for the Monday through Wednesday period, so it looks like we will remain in an active weather pattern with plenty of chances for snow.

J.Spin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top