ORH_wxman

You had 12/30/00 PTSD in the 1/12/11 thread....you got convinced you were screwed. Here's where it starts, but the real melt happens a couple pages later.

I think he's about 1500 feet.

Final daily minimum NSIDC extent has likely been reached....and it was 3.71 million sq km on 9/13. This is the second lowest minimum behind 2012's 3.34 million sq km. Minimum area may or may not have been reached. Current minimum is 2.59 million sq km on 9/15. This is the 3rd lowest behind 2012 (2.23) and 2016 (2.46). I will update if we slip any further, though we're unlikely to change the ranking as it's very late in the season for large moves. The predictions this year based on SIA at the end of June proved to be very accurate and both were off by less than 100k.

Yeah...I just actually looked, and it seems you can get pretty good hydraulic plows for even between 1-2k new....cheaper if used. I might splurge on a heavy duty version though if I was up there, lol.

If I was spending almost every day up there in the winter, I'd just find a heavy duty hydraulic plow for 3k or something and slap it onto the front of a truck....I might even buy an old used pickup just for the plow stuff. Guess he can see how the first winter goes....then decide, lol.

A lot of guys will plow for a seasonal rate and not "by the storm" and that might be cheaper too....I've had a lot of clients over the years that were plow guys/companies. They will often charge a seasonal rate but then might charge extra over a certain amount of snow. That's when I often had to do forensic reporting for them....someone would claim to the plow guy they got 75" of snow instead of 110" and the contract stated anything over 80" would have extra charges....so they'd try and claim they didn't go over 80", LOL.

Yeah that's tough if you leave it be too....you end up with a slab of ice like 3-6 inches thick if you just let is pack down. Turns into a glacier. If you start spending full winters there in the future, you might as well invest in getting a plow yourself....you can probably get a good one for a snowy climate like that put on your truck/SUV for about 3k. Prob would pay for itself within 2 winters, lol.

Yeah, when I was on winter hill, I'd get the most almost every year between us 3 with a an exception or two.....but now it's a neck and neck race every year with them. I think Ray averages the most out of us climo-wise, but it's not by a lot...maybe by 2-4 inches or so.

That's a good price for a driveway that long....whats the threshold for plowing though? If it's like 2 inches, then you might have a lot of plow bills.....lol.

I forget where you are....pretty close to Mt. Snow or Stratton, right? Snowfall is pretty variable around there so I'd need to know which town and which side of that town. Like the western side of Wardsboro above 1300-1400 feet is probably 120-130 while eastern side lower down is maybe 90-100. Similar results in Jamaica and Dover. The West Wardsboro coop averaged 117" when they were in commission from 1978-2011 and they were at 1400 feet. A lot of dogshit years in the 1980s too, so their longterm average is probably a bit higher in the 125-130 range would be my guess.

Ragweed has been horrific this year (maybe because of the dryness?)....I'm not usually an allergy person, but it's been affecting me for about 3 weeks now.

Yeah when we were first discussing who got more snow, I was thinking to myself that it's probably going to be a situation where Alex probably does a bit better on NW upslope and Phin does better in synoptic storms....which force wins out? Is the uplsope advantage Alex has enough to outweigh the synoptic advantage Phin has? Looking at the Randolph site daily snow history, they clearly get upslope too, but I think Alex's spot origraphically looks a bit better. But Randolph looks to do better on coastal storms. Either way, that's why some of us were excited to see another person up in that area....we can actually do a comparison now. Only sick weenies like us would find that exciting....lol.

That was the retro-storm that rained on most of New England and gave NYC like 20" of snow (though the first phase of it was a huge wet snowstorm for interior SNE up to NNE)....but up there the snow never really changed over....those easterly and even southeasterly flow events seem to absolutely dump on Randolph....I've noticed a lot of marginal storms there where they get like 2-3" of QPF and 30" of snow while 10-20 miles away probably didn't get much. That was probably an example of the terrain upsloping enough from the east to keep it a wet snow bomb. Several mountain areas that do well on easterly flow stayed snow on that one across NNE.

Skiing is a hobby for Phin, so no need to rush spring up there. Some of the best skiing is during March and early April with the mountains draped in an entire winter's worth of snow pack.......and also when you don't have to bundle up like you are Shackleton on an Antarctica expedition. March and (in many years) early April is what Ginxy and I have long called "the best open secret in New England" for skiing.

Yeah it would probably drive you nuts if you didn’t spend all that time up there, but in your situation it’s like two residences.

Yeah that whole valley floor probably radiates like the moon...esp with fresh snow cover. Probably some -35 to -40ish temps in the coldest winters. Maybe even colder in the local Maple Hollows of the area.

Yeah even Littleton itself is noticeably better though still a bit snow-holish...and SW Littleton is actually pretty good and down toward Franconia. I’m sure you’ve noticed driving around...it obviously keeps increasing rapidly as you head down toward Franconia Notch and Cannon Mountain. I think the lack of precip is as much to blame or even more so than not holding CAD. Downslope drying in between snowstorms probably helps sublimate the light snows they get more than other areas too...esp on a south or southwest wind. It’s like 2 or 3 factors all conspiring to make them a local minimum. I don’t want to make it sound like they are the Mid-Atlantic....it’s just a very acute local minimum. They still get plenty of light snows from clippers, windex events, and probably even some favorable blocked upslope setups...and even do fine on southwest flow event moderate synoptic snows, but they really struggle on bigger setups and have trouble holding their temps on unfavorable setups compared to other areas nears them.

I was really worried when you mentioned that location...but you’re right, for 99.9% of the population it would be a beautiful paradise, but there’s no way I could in good conscience keep silent seeing a fellow snow weenie consider it. I felt like all the kids in “The Sandlot” movie when Smalls says, “hey what’s the big deal, I’ll get the ball” while he starts climbing the wall....and they all shout “NOOOOOO!!!!.....” and start sprinting after him. LOL

I’d be utterly shocked if that spot got 120”. I could maybe be convinced of 90-100” on the ridge there with mediocre retention. The extra elevation would definitely help some...but it’s still smack in the death triangle between Littleton-Lancaster-Whitefield.

Yeah I don’t know the exact number up there. The Lancaster coop averages like 70”. Sometimes coops are too low if they truly only measure once per day at the same exact time. Not sure if Lancaster does or not. I haven’t scrutinized the coop data there very closely. But based off of snow cover maps and having driven up there frequently, it’s not a whole lot more than that even if it’s wrong. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen bare ground or nearly bare ground there when every other direction was deep snow pack.

It’s def a snow hole there. It’s a ridge but it’s totally stuck right in the valley there between Lancaster and Whitefield. That’s an awful spot. I’m sure they get like an extra 10” per year or something up there compared to the valley floor but I doubt they avoid the big downsloping in the synoptic sense. Id be surprised if they got more than 80-85” per year there. The valley floor there probably barely averages more than ORH with worse retention. It does increase really rapidly toward Jefferson but I feel like that ridge sits in the worst spot. It’s kind of amazing how fast the snow increases once you head east on Rt 2. By the time you get to where Phineas is at the same elevation, it’s probably literally double the annual snowfall with wayyyy better retention. But yeah...in an absolute sense, it’s going to be winter paradise for some person from the south coast. 80”+ of snow is still 80”+ of snow....you just might be driven mad though when you see the snow hole over you or you melt out pretty fast in a cutter and just a few miles away is completely buried.

I lost the 2010-2011 snow map forever unless someone saved it. It was on my old laptop and somehow it didn't make it over to my new one years ago and I didn't have an archived copy on here. Only way it still exists is if someone saved it for themselves.

Yeah his area might have. They got a lot of mixing in the Jan 03 storm there but they well might have gotten enough to have above normal snow that month. Just to his north east and east northeast there was less sleet intrusion.

Someone probably in N RI/NE CT or interior E MA south of the pike had all 4 months AN for snow....you had to be far enough northwest to get smoked in January 2003 but also far enough south to get hit by that nice band in the 3/6/03 system.

March didn't make it for ORH....it may have for some other area that also did well in Nov 2002.