Vermont Snow Updates 2009-10

[flyover]

From today's MRG snow report:

Thin Cover, Bare Spots, Windblown Snow, Icy Patches,

It's thin out there folks so please be careful!

From yesterday's MRG snow report (quoted by Marc_C):

Well the dreaded "weather system" did in fact deliver a mixed bag of precipitation. What started as snow turned to sleet, "sneet", ice, freezing rain, and then a bit of plain old rain. . . . We decided to temporarily close it down as the snow is currently "rotten" . . .

I dunno. IMO, the cosmetics-to-swine-ratio here isn't too bad, especially since it appears to have snowed there much of the day today. In my experience, there aren't very many areas that will even use words like "icy," "rotten," or "bare" in their snow reports.

Off topic: I, for one, was hoping that now that we have all gone rogue and back, that the porcine makeup metaphor might die a quiet death.

 

[Marc_C]

It's interesting how the east goes silent at times like this.

Silent? Everyone in all of the other East threads was talking about our annual holiday rainstorm -- most of us got out on Xmas Day before it arrived. And the MRG report called its snow "rotten"... how much more detail do you expect them to give?

I think Tony may have been looking for total rainfall amounts and geographic dispersion, for starters. And while the holiday rainstorm may have been discussed in other eastern threads (of which I read few), it was somehow oddly absent from the one thread that purports to be an archive of the season's weather.

Regarding MRG, I think their detail is excellent and commend them for their honesty. They also have the bollocks to close when conditions warrant in order to keep the quality and quantity of snow when they reopen. Other areas can learn from this. When I was in the NE, I usually used their weather/conditions for the most accurate assessment compared to the hype laden reports coming out of Sugarbush and Stowe at the time (1980's & 90's).

 

[Marc_C]

I dunno. IMO, the cosmetics-to-swine-ratio here isn't too bad, especially since it appears to have snowed there much of the day today. In my experience, there aren't very many areas that will even use words like "icy," "rotten," or "bare" in their snow reports.

The cosmetics-to-swine ratio was all contained in the omitted parts of what you quoted from the MRG report. As mentioned in my other post, MRG's honesty in conditions reporting is refreshing.

Off topic: I, for one, was hoping that now that we have all gone rogue and back, that the porcine makeup metaphor might die a quiet death.

The metaphor existed before and will exist long beyond that ignorant woman's political life span.

 

[joegm]

The metaphor existed before and will exist long beyond that ignorant woman's political life span.

i thought we were keeping politics off the ski reports :twisted: but as usual though , like all good liberals, you just can't help yourself..... what's really ignorant are intolerant, hypocritical liberals :roll:... i wonder who is more likely to be a skier.. Sarah or Barak :roll:

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 4.4” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:00 P.M. EST

Monday, December 28th, 2009: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 2.9 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.23 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 12.6
Snow Density: 7.9%
Temperature: 28.9 F
Humidity: 96%
Dew Point: 27.5 F
Barometer: 1000 mb
Wind: 0-5 MPH
Sky: Light Snow (1-3 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 4.4 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.34 inches
Current snow at the stake: 10 inches
Season snowfall total: 31.0 inches

After about 11:30 A.M. or so here in Waterbury, the snowfall was just coming down in tiny flakes, and with temperatures in the 35-36 F range, the precipitation was melting as much as it was accumulating. As of ~3:00 P.M., there was just a couple tenths of slushy accumulation on the snowboard. Then however, Mother Nature seemed to turn on the spigot. The flakes got huge (some over an inch in diameter), the temperature dropped a couple of degrees, and the intensity of the snowfall really ramped up to the 1+ inch/hour range at times. Most of the 2.9 inches of snow that fell since noon today came in that 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. window. As of ~7:00 P.M. we’re back to just very light snow.

In terms of the Vermont ski areas that have made afternoon accumulations updates, here’s what I’ve seen reported so far for this event:

Jay Peak: 5”
Burke: 5”
Smuggler’s Notch: 6”
Stowe: 5”
Bolton Valley: 3”
Mad River Glen: 6”
Sugarbush: 4”
Killington: 2”
Pico: 2”
Suicide Six: 1”
Stratton: 3”
Mount Snow: 4”

J.Spin

 

[Tony Crocker]

I think Tony may have been looking for total rainfall amounts and geographic dispersion, for starters.

Correct. Also the actual timing, when did it start and end? My objective (in the Season Progress Reports for example) is to distill data into a decent summary that skiers can use. I was sort of hoping that JSpin would take care of this and save me some work. I was not at the easterners here on FTO. Most of them try to go when it's good and stay home when it's not. As evidenced by those who got out Christmas Eve and Day before the rain hit.

The comments here are helpful. Patrick commenting that the rain got all the way to Ottawa and only the areas NE of Quebec City might have been spared draws a fairly clear picture.

 

[Harvey]

Sorry I'm late.

What's the big deal with not posting TRs when the conditions are bad? I thought the whole point was to gain an understanding of when conditions are good and ski then?

And what is with trollboy? He's made three posts in 3 months and each one was a rag on Jspins thing. Get your own life dude.

I don't really understand the moisture stuff, but Jspin takes great pics. And I like the whole google earth routeup/routedown thing. Joe was right too - the guys kids can rip, on teles, and in the trees for god sakes.

By the time Ty is in middle school ... I can't even imagine what he'll be ripping. J... let us know when he sticks his first landing off the waterfall.

 

[J.Spin]

Any rain between Dec. 25-27? With this level of detail we need to hear about that too.

I was out of town during that period, so I can't give any first had accounts, but I'm sure it rained around here if it rained everywhere else. I melted down a total of 0.67 inches of liquid in my rain gauge when I got home yesterday evening.

In general, I'm only interested in monitoring accumulating snow/winter precipitation events, so rain events don't really factor into that. I'll usually report on mixed precipitation events, or at least the accumulating portion of mixed events, since that gets incorporated into the season total. However, if it's not snowing (or something close) I generally don't send in updates - that's why I titled this thread "Snow Updates" vs. something like "Precipitation Updates", "Weather Updates", or "Ski Conditions Updates". The weather data that I do throw in with the snowfall updates (liquid equivalent, temperature, humidity, winds) is mostly to add some qualification to the snowfall. Aside from the snowfall-specific posts, I do post many of my personal accounts from on the hill, although I try to allude to any recent snowfall in those. Perhaps a more accurate title for the thread might be "Vermont Snowfall Updates". If I do end up monitoring total liquid for the year through interaction with CoCoRaHS, I might have those data to combine with annual snowfall, but I’m not really planning to make daily updates on each liquid event throughout the year.

If people want to add their own updates to the thread (snow, rain, slope conditions, whatever) that can be very helpful, but aside from the rigorous snowfall and weather measurements I make, I don't want people to get the impression that this was meant to be some sort of unbiased thread providing ski conditions. I'm going to call it like I ski it in anything I report from the hill, but people aren't necessarily going to get the whole story on conditions in this thread (at least from my end) because 1) if the conditions aren't good, I'm probably not even going to be out skiing, and 2) when I am out on the slopes, I may be skiing in substantially different snow than what the average skier is going to find.

I also agree with James in that there's generally more than enough "hype", and "moaning and groaning" about the few mixed precipitation/rain events that we get each season, so it doesn't seem like there's really a need to take extra effort to expound upon them here beyond the scope of the thread. But, people can do that if they like.

On a final note, we did get a touch of snow accumulation from the event over the weekend, and if I’d actually been around to witness it in person on Saturday night, I probably would have made an update. But, aside from the view I got from my web cam revealing that we’d received the snow, there weren’t any observations to mention (I don't have a setup for monitoring weather conditions remotely), especially by the time I got back on Sunday night. However, I did make a few comments in a post to Easternuswx.com with regard to the weekend event.

-J

 

[J.Spin]

...while the holiday rainstorm may have been discussed in other eastern threads (of which I read few), it was somehow oddly absent from the one thread that purports to be an archive of the season's weather.

I think my post above explains it a bit more, but people shouldn't come to this thread expecting to hear about rainstorms, or even weather for that matter. The focus of the thread is on snow, and most specifically with regard to the observations, snowfall. There have been numerous rainstorms since this thread started back in early September, and unless they were somehow related to snowfall, they were probably not even mentioned. In the predecessor to this thread from last season, rainstorms were also not discussed, so I'm not sure why this recent event is drawing so much attention. Also, this thread is not meant to be an archive of the season's weather; if the weather involves something other than snow (i.e. it's simply clear, cloudy, foggy, etc.), there aren't likely to be many updates to this thread. The weather information provided in the updates is meant to serve an ancillary role to the snowfall data.

-J

 

[Mike Bernstein]

It's interesting how the east goes silent at times like this.

And while the holiday rainstorm may have been discussed in other eastern threads (of which I read few), it was somehow oddly absent from the one thread that purports to be an archive of the season's weather.

Pretty lame comment which was subsequently smacked down as it should have been.

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 8.8” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:30 A.M. EST

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009: 7:30 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 3.2 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.18 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 17.8
Snow Density: 5.6%
Temperature: 7.5 F
Humidity: 96%
Dew Point: 2.8 F
Barometer: 1013 mb
Wind: ~5 MPH
Sky: Light Snow (1 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 8.8 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.55 inches
Current snow at the stake: 13 inches
Season snowfall total: 35.4 inches

The 3.2 inches of snow that fell in the 12:30 A.M. to 7:30 A.M. timeframe suggests that the snowfall averaged out in the moderate intensity range, but I wasn’t awake to see more than that. The snowfall wasn’t comprised of massive upslope flakes, but it’s still quite dry in the cold air – which apparently came in with a vengeance. It was still 27.0 F at 12:30 A.M., so it fell off 20 degrees since then.

It’s a little tough to get the event totals for the ski areas on this one, because some areas are reporting just their overnight total as their 24-hour total, whereas at other spots it’s an actual 24-hour total, but here’s where things seem to be so far:

Jay Peak: 14”
Smuggler’s Notch: 10”
Stowe: 12”
Bolton Valley: 13”
Mad River Glen: 8”
Sugarbush: 9”
Pico: 13”
Killington: 13”
Bromley: 8”
Stratton: 9”
Mount Snow: 6”

J.Spin

 

[Patrick]

Patrick commenting that the rain got all the way to Ottawa and only the areas NE of Quebec City might have been spared draws a fairly clear picture.

My internet forums time has been limited these days, however I've gotten first hand account on how great this system was in the Charlevoix and further to Mont Edouard area (didn't look into the Gaspe) plus didn't check ZS in a while. Talk of deep powder.

As for myself (as usual), I've been staying home and relaxing from a crazy Fall...my serious skiing generally starts in January.

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 9.1” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:00 P.M. EST

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.3 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.02 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 15.0
Snow Density: 6.7%
Temperature: 5.9 F
Humidity: 87%
Dew Point: 1.2 F
Barometer: 1024 mb
Wind: ~5 MPH
Sky: Light Snow (1 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 9.1 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.57 inches
Current snow at the stake: 12 inches
Season snowfall total: 35.7 inches

We had just very light, small-grained snow today at the house, with 0.3 inches of accumulation. I haven’t seen much change in the mountain storm totals reported by the ski areas due to today’s activity, so those accumulations appear to be generally in a bit over a foot in the Northern Greens.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Bolton Valley, VT 29DEC2009

I wasn’t overly enthused about doing a lot of lift riding in the 0 F temperatures and wind yesterday, but I did want to check out the new snow, so earning some turns sounded like a good way to go. When I finally checked on the Bolton Valley snow report at around 2:00 P.M., my decision was made anyway, since their last update at 11:00 A.M. said that no lifts were running due to the wind. From temperatures in the 10 F range down at the house, I ascended to temperatures hovering around 0 F in the Bolton Valley Village. I took a look at the slopes of Timberline on the way up, and could see that the coverage on the lower slopes wasn’t bad, but windswept areas were showing some grass etc. Up at the main base I ran into Adam Sherman, who had recently done some skiing. He gave me the lowdown on what he’d found, which was that most trails had been absolutely blasted by the wind. He recommended the Fanny Hill Glades, since they were protected, and said that there were just a very few tracks in there. After our chat, I skinned up Fanny Hill, finding that it had really been hit hard by the wind. Even with the new foot plus of snow, I wouldn’t plan on heading to Bolton for extraordinary on-trail skiing until at least the next storm if what I saw on Fanny Hill was any indication. Fortunately, things are much better in the trees. Traversing through the trees toward the glades, I found anywhere from 7 to 18 inches of fresh snow due to some drifting, but once in the glades there was a more consistent and unaffected accumulation of about a foot. It was nice and calm in there aside from a few puffs of wind, and there were just a few tracks. In terms of coverage, there are still some twigs sticking out here and there, and some stumps etc. to watch out for, but it’s certainly decent. The Mt. Mansfield stake did hit 40 inches yesterday, so on average most stuff should be getting close to ready anyway. I’d argue that the foot of snow we received (where it settled evenly) was a bit too light and dry for the steeper pitches I found, but perhaps this next storm will set up the steeper terrain better. It was getting dark during my run, but I still managed to snap a few pictures of the snow in the glades and attached a couple below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Waterbury Storm Summary: 9.1” snow/0.55” liquid equivalent

This morning we cleared out to blue skies (although clouds have been moving in this afternoon) so this event appears to be complete. Overnight we picked up a final accumulation of 0.05 inches of snow, but as it was less than a tenth of an inch it’s going down as a trace and the final tally for this event is 9.1 inches. With the event complete, I finally melted down the contents of the rain/snow gauge to see what it collected for this event, and found 0.51 inches of liquid. As we haven’t really been hit too hard by the coastal storms this season, this event actually takes the top spot in terms of accumulation around here, with the 7.7 inches we picked up for the December 9th event falling to second.

The snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield stake hit the magic 40-inch mark yesterday for the first time this season, so that’s a good sign with regard to what’s been going on in the mountains. Here at the house, the fluff from our recent event has settled down a couple of inches since yesterday, putting the yard snowpack at 11 inches as of this morning. The most recent Mt. Mansfield/Waterbury snowpack graph is added below.

It appears as though the exact play by play of this next big system (or systems) is still unknown, but after today’s sunshine, our local NWS forecast calls for continuous snow of some sort through at least the middle of next week and moderating temperatures in the 20s and low 30s F. It should make for a very good stretch of skiing.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 2.3” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 11:00 A.M. EST

Friday, January 1st, 2010: 11:00 A.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: 33.1 F
Humidity: 73%
Dew Point: 23.4 F
Barometer: 1014 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Partly Cloudy/Flurries
Storm snow total: 2.3 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.11 inches
Current snow at the stake: 12 inches
Season snowfall total: 38.0 inches

The continuation of last night’s snowfall activity added an additional 0.8 inches of accumulation as of this morning, and it was very similar in density at ~5% H2O. It sounds like the biggest show around here in Northern Vermont will be the late Saturday into Sunday timeframe, so winter storm watches are currently up for that period. The BTV guys are going with accumulations of 15-25” and Roger Hill is going with 12-24"+ for the whole event in the Northern Greens, so they seem to be in fair agreement.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 3.4” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 11:00 P.M. EST

Friday, January 1st, 2010: 11:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 1.1 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.03 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 36.7
Snow Density: 2.7%
Temperature: 29.1 F
Humidity: 97%
Dew Point: 28.0 F
Barometer: 1010 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow (2-4 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 3.4 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.14 inches
Current snow at the stake: 12 inches
Season snowfall total: 39.1 inches

We were in Burlington this evening, and I’d bet they even had a bit more accumulation and more intense snowfall that we’ve had here in Waterbury. It was very pretty outside walking around Burlington with the big snowflakes falling and the fluffy accumulation.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 7.4” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 5:45 P.M. EST

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010: 4:30 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 2.2 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.07 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 31.4
Snow Density: 3.2%
Temperature: 18.3 F
Humidity: 76%
Dew Point: 9.7 F
Barometer: 1006 mb
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow (2-6 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 6.3 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.25 inches
Current snow at the stake: 14 inches
Season snowfall total: 42.0 inches

We were up at Bolton Valley most of the day today, so I’ll kick off with some observations from there. We started out in the morning with light snow and a temperature of roughly 25 F, and as forecast, the snowfall ramped up once we got into the afternoon. It was hard to tell what the snowfall rate was up on the mountain; it didn’t seem all that intense, but when I walked to the car at the Timberline parking lot (~1,500’ elevation) I was walking through about 4-5 inches of new fluff. The temperature dropped and the wind picked up as the snow came in, and the temperature was down to ~15 F when we left around 4:00 P.M.

Down at the house (495’) it looks like we picked up about half the amount of snow that they received at the Timberline base area during the day. I didn’t get a chance to send in a report this morning since we were heading up to the mountain, but overnight we’d managed to pick up 0.7 inches of snow made up of 0.04 inches of liquid.

Since the 4:30 P.M. snowboard clearing, the flake size and intensity of the snowfall has definitely picked up, and there’s an additional 1.1 inches of snow on the snowboard as of 5:45 P.M.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 12.9” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 10:30 P.M. EST

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010: 10:30 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 6.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.21 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 31.4
Snow Density: 3.2%
Temperature: 11.7 F
Humidity: 82%
Dew Point: 5.2 F
Barometer: 1002 mb
Wind: 5-10 MPH with stronger gusts
Sky: Snow (1-3 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 12.9 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.46 inches
Current snow at the stake: 19 inches
Season snowfall total: 48.6 inches

While I’d estimate our wind to be in the 5-10 MPH range and fairly gentle, this event has seen the occasional stronger gust come down to the property. I can hear the wind really roaring up in the higher elevations. It doesn’t happen very often, but one gust actually ruined the snow stack on the elevated snowboard this evening, so I had to go to one of my ground-based snowboards to get a reliable measurement of this round of snowfall. With this in mind, I’ve placed one of my ground-based boards out back near our snow stake, which should provide a bit more shelter from any wayward gusts.

I think part of the issue with regard to stack stability is that fact that this snow is so light and dry. Even more than usual, walking through the champagne snow is an experience - it seems to disintegrate as soon as you disturb it. The closest analogy that comes to mind is the way spun sugar disintegrates when it comes in contact with water. The overall snow density for this round came in right where the previous one did at 3.2% H2O, but the size of the flakes has dropped near the end of this accumulation. This gives the new snow accumulation a bit of an upside down arrangement, so I think this slightly denser top layer is supporting the disintegration effect by crushing the less dense snow underneath when it is disturbed.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 18.0” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:00 A.M. EST

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010: 7:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 5.1 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.30 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 17.0
Snow Density: 5.9%
Temperature: 9.5 F
Humidity: 82%
Dew Point: 3.0 F
Barometer: 998 mb
Wind: 5-10 MPH with stronger gusts
Sky: Light Snow (1-5 mm flakes)
Storm snow total: 18.0 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.76 inches
Current snow at the stake: 21 inches
Season snowfall total: 53.7 inches

There has been some gusting and a little drifting at the house, but my ground-based snowboards were in good agreement on the 10:30 P.M. – 7:00 A.M. accumulation of snow. This latest round of snow is a little more dense than what fell in the evening yesterday, and I suspect that it’s due to the generally smaller flakes vs. the previous accumulation. It’s not surprising that the snowpack has already settled about three inches with that fluff underneath it – even trying to get my core sample off one of the ground-based snowboard this morning, the snow underneath the board was collapsing with the slightest pressure. This should be some dreamy snow for skiing where it wasn’t affected by the wind.

With regard to the mountain accumulations from this event, I was somewhat surprised to see that not all the resorts in Vermont have been hit quite as hard as this immediate area (even the other northern resorts) based on the reports I’ve seen so far. Bolton’s snowfall total for this event seems to be somewhere in the 2-foot range based on their 72-hour accumulation at SkiVermont.com. Reported summit totals for Bolton Valley are below:

24-hours: 15 inches
48 hours: 22 inches
72 hours: 24 inches
7 days: 33 inches

In general, the remaining Northern Vermont resorts appear to be in the 1 to 1.5-foot range for accumulations for this event. Looking at the current Intellicast Northeast radar, the precipitation seems to be coming from the NNE direction. It’s much more common to see the moisture flowing in from the NW and NNW directions around here with these types of storms, so that may have something to do with the how the snowfall was distributed in the recent part of this event.

J.Spin