1345 replies to this topic

[Allenson]

Snowing again. Sweet!

[J.Spin]

We had some rain earlier today, but now the precipitation is over to snow here in Burlington and it’s coming down at a pretty vigorous pace with big flakes up to an inch or so in diameter – visibility is probably ½ mile.

[adk]

Concur. absolutely RIPPING heavy heavy flakes downtown right now.
Can barely the lake from 3rd story on battery street.

Not that this will accumulate down here. Surfaces are wet.

well that stopped.

I'm assuming classic "no snow in BTV, snow in the mountains" effect has been put in place.

[tamarack]

Mid 20s with ZR at AUG. I haven't been out since 7:30, but those who have report icy walking.

Got 5.0" IMBY yest, with 0.54" LE. High temp was 21 and it was all flakes (though small ones), so even 9:1 stuff moved easily. Maybe an inch or two more this evening with the front/ULL, then perhaps our first double-digit negative Sun morning - it's almost like winter!

[ctsnowstorm628]

Man, after these 1-8" tonight, Tuesday-Wednesday looks ugly next week for most except for the higher elevations....

[adk]

 ctsnowstorm628, on 13 January 2012 - 01:17 PM, said:

Man, after these 1-8" tonight, Tuesday-Wednesday looks ugly next week for most except for the higher elevations....

Fine by me. Where else do you need the snow?

[powderfreak]

Storm totals as of 2pm:

1,549ft... 5.2"
3,014ft... 7.0"

Between 12pm-2pm we picked up 2" at the base and nearly 3" up high for solid 1"/hr+ rates. Near whiteout vis too.

[powderfreak]

 J.Spin, on 13 January 2012 - 07:19 AM, said:

Event totals: 3.8” Snow/0.35” L.E.

There was an additional tenth of an inch of snow on the snowboard this morning; it was again fairly dense, coming in at a synoptic-like 10% H2O similar to what we received during the day yesterday. I’ve updated the north to south list of snow totals to the latest values I’ve seen reported by the Vermont ski areas. It’s been a little tricky with regard to the 24/48-hour snow totals, but in general accumulations seem to be around a half a foot up and down the spine:

Jay Peak: 7”
Burke: 5”
Smuggler’s Notch: 5”
Stowe: 4”
Bolton Valley: 5”
Mad River Glen: 6”
Sugarbush: 7”
Suicide Six: 6”
Pico: 7”
Killington: 7”
Okemo: 6”
Bromley: 5”
Magic Mountain: 6”
Stratton: 7”
Mount Snow: 6”

I have been very confused by some of the ski area snowfall reports in this area today.... I figured that Bolton and Smuggs on the west side sort of downslope on a SE flow, and they reported 5" as of yesterday afternoon. Then this morning, Smugg's 24 hour total on Ski Vermont was listed as 3" and Jeffersonville Co-Op at the base area had like 1.7".

Then Bolton Valley that reported 4-5" changed their report this morning to this (which is on their website and says 2" past 24 hours):
Updated Friday, January 13th at 3:15 PM
We received 2" of fresh snow as of this morning and it should continue periodically in the next few days, leading up to a weekend of solid skiing and riding here at Bolton Valley."

So did Bolton and Smuggs only get 2-3" or was it 5" plus 2-3"? It is very odd to see both of those resorts sort of back-track on their snowfall accumulations. J.Spin, do you have any inside info on what Bolton has recieved so far this storm?

Edit nevermind, I'm an idiot. Their storm total is also 5-7" in the past 72 hours. Same as us. That makes sense. 24 hours ago is when the dryslot moved in so they probably picked up 2" today.

[borderwx]

pretty nice, winds really started rippin around 2, dropped 8F in 2/1/2 hours, snowing like hell up high.

one of my favorite trees


the snack tree



here ya go PF. over the can by a few inches, around 26/2700', only better the higher you went

[powderfreak]

Awesome borderwx!

Upslope is really starting to rip. I'm right on the edge of the downslope drying here in town, but the mountain is getting crushed along with the western slopes.

I-89 through Bolton looks fun right now.



The lower angle radar loop really shows where this is taking place... right on the spine and western slope. I'm getting steady light snow but I can see a wall of whiteout type white off to my west. The ski mountain on the zig-zag county line is getting smoked.

[J.Spin]

I grabbed the updated graphics from the BTV website – notable changes look to be the addition of the winter storm warnings in Northern New York on the advisories map, and a bump in expected totals over that way. Also, on the snow forecast map a little of that electric violet color has shown up in the Northern Greens:

[borderwx]

no doubt. locked up on the spine. one of those days you feel like you like you live in big mountains, snow high, drizzle low.

bottom is dropping out now, watching the temp plummet, wind whistling now at the house.

ain't winter grand!

[red]

up to 45 and finally holding steady in Bangor. Went from 26 to 45 between 11:30 this morning and now. The little bit of snow on the ground is taking a beating.

[powderfreak]

Man it is just dumping snow. Great snow growth over the past hour. Friends at the top of the mountain report heavy, heavy snow.

This was out the windshield as I was leaving the ski resort around 2:30pm during some 1-2"/hr snowfall mixed with some wind. Whiteout conditions up there in the high country.

[jzinckgra]

jeez, we don't even get that much hvy snow in a blizzard. wish I lived in the mtns sometimes.

[j24vt]

You left just as it really started coming down!

[powderfreak]

Even BTV has been reporting 1/2 mile moderate snow this evening...

Moisture is just getting wrung out by the Spine right now. This could be one of those bigger upslope events with an axis of 12" or so just from this part of the storm. But then again, it could just dry up and stop at any point. You never really know with these things.

[CT Rain]

 powderfreak, on 13 January 2012 - 05:09 PM, said:

Even BTV has been reporting 1/2 mile moderate snow this evening...

Moisture is just getting wrung out by the Spine right now. This could be one of those bigger upslope events with an axis of 12" or so just from this part of the storm. But then again, it could just dry up and stop at any point. You never really know with these things.

Yeah these are the kinds of setups that I really like. They can overperform and they have a low risk of busting since you have a sizable area of synoptic lift thanks to strong upper level forcing and then you have the meso/micro scale orographic lift that can wring out the moisture and produce localized areas of stronger UVM in the SGZ.

I think there will be a nice area of 12"+ on the spine when all is said and done.

[powderfreak]

 j24vt, on 13 January 2012 - 05:06 PM, said:

You left just as it really started coming down!

LOL... I was fried. Skied a lot today and after starting up there around 5am, I'm plenty ready to get out by 2:30. I gotta save something in the tank for tomorrow

Were you up there today? I have a funny feeling I'm going to arrive to a lot of snow on the snow board at 5am tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a good test of the location though with the fluffy snow and gusty winds. It may not be sheltered enough in the hardwood forest. The 3,000ft one is better sheltered than the one at the base because of the dense evergreens all around up at 3kft.

Eitherway, tomorrow should be a good one as long as we don't have any wind holds.

[powderfreak]

 CT Rain, on 13 January 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

Yeah these are the kinds of setups that I really like. They can overperform and they have a low risk of busting since you have a sizable area of synoptic lift thanks to strong upper level forcing and then you have the meso/micro scale orographic lift that can wring out the moisture and produce localized areas of stronger UVM in the SGZ.

I think there will be a nice area of 12"+ on the spine when all is said and done.

Yeah I feel a lot better about this one now that its organized and going. They are incredibly tough to forecast but you are right, anytime there's synoptic lift along with the low level orographic lift, that's when these things really go to town. Its like enhancing a deformation band right over the mountains and western slopes.

I love how when you watch it on radar you can actually see the moisture backing upstream as it gets blocked by the mountains and it starts snowing progressively further west with each radar scan.

[powderfreak]

It would be brutal to live on the eastern side of Lake Champlain in NY during these events. Watching even the valley on the west side getting sustained 20-25dbz with great snow growth while you are looking at partly cloudy skies. Base reflectivity obviously does not "see" into the mountains very well, but when you get that N-S oriented band of snowfall that just sits there on the base radar, you know its dumping eastward over the Spine.

[J.Spin]

 powderfreak, on 13 January 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

So did Bolton and Smuggs only get 2-3" or was it 5" plus 2-3"? It is very odd to see both of those resorts sort of back-track on their snowfall accumulations. J.Spin, do you have any inside info on what Bolton has received so far this storm?

Edit nevermind, I'm an idiot. Their storm total is also 5-7" in the past 72 hours. Same as us. That makes sense. 24 hours ago is when the dryslot moved in so they probably picked up 2" today.

Yeah, you got it PF, Bolton had 5” yesterday, then the Dryslot, and then 2” more today by some point this morning. So that’s at least 7, but with the way the western slopes are getting hammered, I’m sure it’s more than that now. It is sometimes tough figuring out what’s gone on with all the resort’s snow reports, when I try to put the summary lists together, but I just do the best I can with what seems to make sense. We’ve actually been getting hit pretty hard with snow here in the Burlington area; I’m on the bus right now and it’s nonstop talk by all the drivers as they share which roads are doing the best – we’re actually taking Route 2 right now as recommended by some of the other drivers because I guess there are issues on French Hill on I-89. It should be nice as this moisture crashes into the wall of the Greens:

[powderfreak]

Bolton is going to get smoked tonight sitting up in that high elevation west facing bowl. A few friends of mine live up there at like 2,200ft on the west slope and they'll get a foot or more tonight, haha.

[J.Spin]

Check out that cool wall of 30 db echoes coming into Burlington, pretty neat:

[powderfreak]

Winter Storm Warning for the west slopes now.

[sgottmann]

Dumping here at base of sugarbush, 3 + since 4:30 or so! Hoping this lasts for awhile.

[j24vt]

5.2" today

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 6.7” Snow/0.70” L.E.

Traveling through Burlington and Williston this evening, it was really snowing with big flakes, but once we got east of the mountains that really tapered off. It was hardly snowing when I arrived at the Waterbury Park and Ride – my car had just a crusty layer from the mixed precipitation with only about ¾” of fluff on it. The intensity of the snowfall picked up substantially just driving a couple west miles into the mountains though, and I found 2.9” of snow on the snowboard at the house. The snow that was falling was quite dry, but the slush on the bottom of the core (from the mixed precipitation earlier today) brought the density up to 12.1% H2O for the whole sample. At the time I cleared the board, the flakes weren’t all that big, and the snowfall rate was only moderate or so, but over the past half hour it has really been coming down with big, upslope-style flakes – by watching it accumulate on the snowboard I can see that it is falling at a rate of around 2”/hr. I checked out the radar and there’s a large area of 30 db echoes running into this part of the spine:



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

New Snow: 2.9 inches
New Liquid: 0.35 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 8.3
Snow Density: 12.1% H2O
Temperature: 26.2 F
Sky: Moderate Snow
Snow at the stake: 10.5 inches

[J.Spin]

 J.Spin, on 13 January 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

by watching it accumulate on the snowboard I can see that it is falling at a rate of around 2”/hr.

Actually, that estimate was a little low; I just checked, and 2.8 inches of snow fell in the past hour. That's pretty intense snowfall, even for here in upslope country.

[BrianW]

The live scanner feeds from VT are nuts right now.

http://www.radiorefe.../audio/?stid=50

I-89 Sounds like a mess right now.

UNITS ON SCENE OF AN MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT WITH PIN, JAWS OF LIFE TO WORK, DHART DENIED DUE TO WEATHER [VMT013]




I-89 Stopped Traffic

Between Exit 11: US 2 (7 miles south of the South Burlington area) and Exit 13: I-189 (South Burlington). Traffic is stopped. Traffic is slow. Look out for numerous accidents.

http://511.vermont.gov/main.jsf


I so miss living up there. Spent 5 years in Burlington and Waterbury and moved back to CT 2 years ago. I did get to experience the Valentines day blizzard at least.

Enjoy it.

[wxeyeNH]

Vermont mountains doing their job tonight. Just ring out that moisture! Snow showers from fropa are about to come to an end. Will add our big 1/4" to our season total of 36"!

[Ginx]

91northbound closed between exits 3/4 ice snow

[borderwx]

got ourselves a good one tonight NNE's. under 1/2 mile vis, hammering snow, snow devils dancing all around, drifting, temps have paused 21F and holding for now. lookin like the snowblower gets a workout tomorrow

can only imagine what is happening over 3000'. snowbomb. I rescind my statement J would report 10-12 in the AM, haha

[J.Spin]

 powderfreak, on 13 January 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

Winter Storm Warning for the west slopes now.

Thanks for the update PF, hadn’t stopped in at the NWS page for a while. It’s not too surprising though with ~3”/hr here, it could be even more intense is some of those favored west slope spots. Accumulations happen pretty fast at those snowfall rates, and driving can be quite difficult. Bolton has probably been taking quite a pounding tonight. I’ve added the updated BTV graphics below; the electric violet color for 6 to 8 inches extends down the spine now, and there a little of that more magenta/fuchsia color for 8 to 10 inches up north:

[mreaves]

Coming down hard here in Barre. Don't know when it cranked up but the roads are getting pretty nasty. Would love to see it continue but we're not in an upslope region so I'm not holding my breath.ike I said last night, would love to double up on the 4 plus inches from round 1, we'll see.