Fozz

I have some very fond memories of February 2013 when I came up north to chase that storm, years before I moved to the area. 27". Uxbridge, MA

I saw the colors last year in the Whites, so it's not the end of the world. I have visitors coming up in a week so that's the only reason I cared (and their timing was unrelated to fall colors). But they're not super invested because they aren't weenies, and they'd be just fine staying local. The Blackstone valley has some nice views for fall colors and I'm thinking we'll be near peak.

At this rate I might have to head south towards Newport for the best colors on Columbus Day weekend.

Yup, seeing quite a bit of color now, especially these past few days.

The 500 mb composite seems to indicate a combination of some decent years (1965, 2009) and some years. Let's hope it's at least much better than last year. Well done and good luck Ray!

It will be hard for the mountains of VT and Maine to get a whole lot of skiers if those states keep their COVID travel restrictions in place. NH seems more lenient. Of course, we can only guess what the situation will look like in the winter.

I'm planning to go up to NH on October 9 to see the colors, since my sister and BIL will be visiting. I'm hoping the Whites will be near peak around that time.

I've been looking for that kind of map for ages, thanks for posting it. As you can see it shows an especially sharp gradient in Worcester county, and on a number of trips the snow cover increased fast once I made my way to NH.

You're saying this as if the -NAO were some limited resource that we have to conserve. I don't think it works that way.

Now that I'm up here, I've suddenly lost any desire that I once had to see a repeat of 2009-10

Marcus was too far north to get much on 1/30/2010. But the closer burbs of Baltimore did great. 4-7". And after that there was yet another moderate storm just a few days before the big one. A quick 3-6" of wet snow on Feb 3 or 4. Hardly anyone paid much attention to it considering what was to come, but it was another nice appetizer. And then the rest was history.

Yeah 35-37" was right around what my depth was after receiving 45" from the two storms. BWI had similar totals, and they too had that depth. I guess at some point the compression of the snowpack becomes too hard to avoid. Even that crazy Buffalo LES storm in Christmas 2001, which was known to have "7 feet of snow" (81.5" to be exact), never had anywhere near that depth, though to be fair LES is a bit "fake". Their max depth was 44", which wasn't much different from the jackpot areas of MD in Feb 2010.

The whole winter, and especially that 12 day period from Jan 30 to Feb 10 was really hard to believe throughout the region. The Philly burbs were a bit warmer than central/northern MD in the second storm IIRC, since you were closer to the surface low, so ratios may have not been as crazy. Still very impressive totals. Some people say that Snowmageddon was a once in a lifetime storm. I wouldn't agree about that one storm alone, since it was equalled by the super Nino blizzard of 2016. But that whole period of Feb 2010 with the two back to back HECS was truly one of a kind.

I was lucky enough to catch this footage at the height of the second February 2010 storm in MD. Still my all time favorite.

The first storm (Feb 5-6) had the typical mid-Atlantic wet snow, but second storm (Feb 9-10) actually gave us high ratio powder with temps in the lower 20s, especially once the low bombed the morning of the 10th. The whole Baltimore area was in the perfect spot for the deform band and far enough from the surface low for temps to really plummet (I recall NJ mixing lol). It was an incredible scene.

Some of the hills of Carroll County, MD (esp the good spots of Parr's ridge) had close to 50" of depth after the second February blizzard (Feb 9-10, 2010). We basically had two back to back HECS within just days of each other (Feb 5-6 and then Feb 9-10), and incredibly some of those lucky spots received over 2' from both storms each. Those areas are the ones that ended up with 100" for the season. I lived in the same county as Phin (Baltimore county), a bit WNW of him just north of the beltway, and ended up with around 85" for the season with 3' max depth on Feb 10. The totals from the big February storms were 25" and then 20". An incredible event.

I’m surprised they’ve reported more snow than even Pinkham Notch at 2000’, which has a 10 year average around 140-150”. Not sure which numbers to believe, or whether Randolph has some special upslope.

Wasn't that storm more of a bust for the mid-Atlantic? It was supposed to be a big one in DC/Baltimore, probably 8-12" or so, but then it bypassed us completely while NYC and Philly ended the millennium with a major storm. I'm guessing up this way it may have tracked too close and become a rainer. It was a very compact storm.

Honestly I am a bit jealous. Gotta work hard for the next 10 years I guess.

Looks like a very nice view. What's the elevation?

I've been to Wildcat a number of times, and even met up with Larvay in Gorham after he spent a weekend at SR. But somehow I never quite made my way to Maine. Gotta do that one day.

Maine remains the only East coast state where I’ve never been.

I’ve actually never been there, nor have I been to Maine. But I’ve seen pictures and heard good things about it from those who’ve been there, and it made me sad when they shut down.

I’m so glad Saddleback is back.

My gut feeling says this will be a pretty good winter, but COVID might stop us from fully enjoying it. My main concern is how safe it is to stay at a hotel or AirBnB for any ski weekend in NNE. Based on last winter, which was practically a repeat of 2001-02 and unimpressive even by the standards of my old home, going the extra distance to NNE was worth it just about every single time. It was not too bad up there.