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NNE Winter Thread


powderfreak

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Yesterday was an amazing day at Stowe. Sunny, temps in the 50s. PERFECT corn.

Indeed, it was a great day to be out on the slopes. Even if we’re actually running a few degrees below normal for the month at this point, it’s feeling much more like a typical November with periods for good snowmaking. After the past couple of warm Novembers I’d forgotten what that was like. It looks like the next shot at snow is tomorrow, and then it’s expected to be pleasant right into the weekend. I don’t think the mountain will have too much trouble hitting their Saturday target for opening this season – I’m sure PF is all over the specifics with regard to what Mother Nature is going to permit, but with all the nights below freezing and dry air, it would seem that snowmaking could be done if needed. The amount of snow that the mountain has put down in the past week is quite impressive though. I didn’t know it until we were out yesterday, but they’ve even been making snow over at Spruce Peak:

11NOV12A.jpg

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Luckily the air is dry...

66F at my house in town, 63F at 1,500ft base of ski resort, 53F at the summit. And its only 10am.

Even Bolton Valley at 2,100ft is at 60F.

Just recorded a gust to 71mph at the summit at 1435utc. Consistent gusts over 60mph this morning and the wind is just ripping up high.

When winds are gusting 60-70mph out of the SW, that's some classic WAA shooting overtop and we will get really warm today I think. Already +20F over the average high and its only 10am.

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What a torch up in the ski areas. Thankfully the days are short, the sun is low, and change is on the way starting tomorrow! Should be plenty of cold nights for snowmaking coming up.

Dude I was just up skiing and the torch is doing next to no damage to the man-made, although the natural is pretty much gone except for north facing and drifts way up high... I'm shocked at the staying power of that blue cement man-made snow. One top to bottom run at Stowe is incredibly fat (like 3-5 feet) and the other top-to-bottom route has a couple week spots but is still continuous and wall to wall most of the way.

It always amazes me how long man-made snow can stand up to warm temperatures... but I guess I shouldn't be if you think of the QPF content of that snow. Pumping almost an Olympic sized swimming pool worth of water onto the hill every MINUTE in the form of snow... that's a lot of QPF, lol. I still can't comprehend the amount of water that goes up on the hill every hour...draining 60 swimming pools in that hour...and then doing that for like 5 straight days.

Anyway, nice to ski a good 2,100 vertical foot run in the sunshine with temps in the 60s...t-shirts on the snow and nice soft spring-like conditions. Snow guns should be back online by 2pm tomorrow at least up high. Ran into a WFO BTV meteorologist up there earning his turns as well... I love that the local NWS office has guys like me that love being outdoors sliding on snow in the winter. You can tell that office has several because they are often referencing the ski areas or mountain recreation weather in the AFD and other products.

70F at the house right now, and MVL hit 72F... a balmy 56F at 4,000ft. With the gusty SW winds it was like getting a furnace blast in your face.

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Wonder if we'll see any snow in the mountains following the front. Chances look very low below 2000ft but our internal forecast is showing a coating to 2" (essentially regurgitated GFS data) up high.

Even a cosmetic 1" and some rime on the trees would bring back a wintery appeal to the mountains.

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It always amazes me how long man-made snow can stand up to warm temperatures... but I guess I shouldn't be if you think of the QPF content of that snow. Pumping almost an Olympic sized swimming pool worth of water onto the hill every MINUTE in the form of snow... that's a lot of QPF, lol. I still can't comprehend the amount of water that goes up on the hill every hour...draining 60 swimming pools in that hour...and then doing that for like 5 straight days.

Back in my skiing days, I read that manmade snow had a 3:1 ratio. Made sense to me, as whenever I've measured LE for pure IP it's come very close to that ratio, and manmade is merely tiny IP. (Unless the newer processes produce a different product; long time since I've skied under a snowgun.)

Approached 60 at my place today after the foggy 30s start, finally melted the plow piles from last week's snow. Nice day to put wood on the porch, but the deer just don't want to move. Neither would I, if I had all my winter clothing on during a heat wave.

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It always amazes me how long man-made snow can stand up to warm temperatures... but I guess I shouldn't be if you think of the QPF content of that snow. Pumping almost an Olympic sized swimming pool worth of water onto the hill every MINUTE in the form of snow... that's a lot of QPF, lol. I still can't comprehend the amount of water that goes up on the hill every hour...draining 60 swimming pools in that hour...and then doing that for like 5 straight days.

Back in my skiing days, I read that manmade snow had a 3:1 ratio. Made sense to me, as whenever I've measured LE for pure IP it's come very close to that ratio, and manmade is merely tiny IP. (Unless the newer processes produce a different product; long time since I've skied under a snowgun.)

Approached 60 at my place today after the foggy 30s start, finally melted the plow piles from last week's snow. Nice day to put wood on the porch, but the deer just don't want to move. Neither would I, if I had all my winter clothing on during a heat wave.

They are the ones that are smart, When its cold you have to sit and freeze your azz off waiting on them , And when its warm, You have to walk around sweating your balls off to get them to move

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It always amazes me how long man-made snow can stand up to warm temperatures... but I guess I shouldn't be if you think of the QPF content of that snow. Pumping almost an Olympic sized swimming pool worth of water onto the hill every MINUTE in the form of snow... that's a lot of QPF, lol. I still can't comprehend the amount of water that goes up on the hill every hour...draining 60 swimming pools in that hour...and then doing that for like 5 straight days.

Back in my skiing days, I read that manmade snow had a 3:1 ratio. Made sense to me, as whenever I've measured LE for pure IP it's come very close to that ratio, and manmade is merely tiny IP. (Unless the newer processes produce a different product; long time since I've skied under a snowgun.)

That ratio is probably pretty close to correct most of the time... at optimal 10-14F temps (below that range it can get too cold with some of the particles not being heavy enough to fall to the ground) with a calm wind, I could see that ratio maybe get as high as 6:1? I'm really not sure of that. Which gets me thinking... I should find out, haha. Maybe I'll try to get the L.E. of some snowmaking just for kicks.

But that's certainly why it lasts so long in mild weather... 3-5 feet of sleet is going to take a while to melt.

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Warm one yesterday ... MWN set a new record with a high of 46F. And even right now at the 5am obs they are 41F. Was 59F in my 'hood when I stepped out at 4:15 this morning. Tropical almost.

Cooler air is headed your way. 46 here this morning and raining after a balmy high of 63 yesterday.

It's settled down now but man-oh-man was the south wind screaming last night. I don't know for sure but we must've had some gusts in the upper-30s, maybe 40. Surprised we didn't loose power, but we didn't, ftw!

Did not need an alarm this morning with that line that came roaring through associated with the fropa.

It blasted through here and woke me up at around 3:30am or so. Quite loud...!

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Rain changed to snow this morning on the mountain... sounds like 2-3" at the summit. Trails are back to white again after a brief brown look yesterday.

Accumulating snow level got down to like 1,800ft with 2,000ft+ where snow is sticking to the trees (matches with Coles Pond at 2,300ft).

Can see it on radar too in the elevations.

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Some shots from the mountain today... up to 4" fell at the summit.

IMG_8610_edited-1.jpg

IMG_8667_edited-1.jpg

About 2" of fresh snow at 2,500ft.

IMG_8630_edited-1.jpg

And 3-4" above 3,500ft.

IMG_8635_edited-1.jpg

Middle Lord trail was skiing pretty nicely today... I love the Mansfield snow preservation facing north and east, while across the way the golf course faces due south and looks like you could still play it.

IMG_8634_edited-1.jpg

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Some shots from the mountain today... up to 4" fell at the summit.

About 2" of fresh snow at 2,500ft.

And 3-4" above 3,500ft.

Middle Lord trail was skiing pretty nicely today... I love the Mansfield snow preservation facing north and east, while across the way the golf course faces due south and looks like you could still play it.

IMG_8634_edited-1.jpg

Man, I want to play that course! Tough to get on for us mortals though. I know a guy who works at the resort who says he can get me on, but I'd probably have to play with him though. LOL

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Some shots from the mountain today... up to 4" fell at the summit.

About 2" of fresh snow at 2,500ft.

And 3-4" above 3,500ft.

Thanks for the pictures PF, they’re great. I could tell that the mountain got a decent round of snow when I saw how white the view was from here in Burlington yesterday after the clouds parted. I’m assuming that the snowmakers are back at it on these cold nights? – it seems pretty dry and cold at all elevations, so hopefully they’re making use of it. It’s nice to have a more typical November back in terms of weather, even if this projected stretch of clear weather coming up is somewhat atypical.

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Had a busy day yesterday taking a friend to the hospital in Littleton,NH so couldn't really post. Yesterday morning areas above ~1,100ft had a nice coating on the grass and trees on I-93, with a local MAX just northwest of littleton at about 1,250ft. Nice.

No snow at LSC, though. Oh yeah, and it was cold as ballz last night...got down to 21F. And, I'm calling it now, I go home Saturday 11/17 through Sunday 11/25, so there'll be some sort of snow event while I'm gone lol

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Had a busy day yesterday taking a friend to the hospital in Littleton,NH so couldn't really post. Yesterday morning areas above ~1,100ft had a nice coating on the grass and trees on I-93, with a local MAX just northwest of littleton at about 1,250ft. Nice.

No snow at LSC, though. Oh yeah, and it was cold as ballz last night...got down to 21F. And, I'm calling it now, I go home Saturday 11/17 through Sunday 11/25, so there'll be some sort of snow event while I'm gone lol

You really are from SNE, not NNE! cold.gif

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11am today... moderate to heavy snow with visibility of 1/4sm or less. Snow increasing rapidly at up to 2" per hour.

Mother Nature wanted to have a clear, sunny, pleasant day....but we had other ideas. If Nature won't give us a blizzard, we'll just have to create one. Here's the terrain parks manager dropping into a man-made blizzard on a sunny November day.

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