jculligan

Awesome pics from the other side of the Notches today! We had a snow shower here in Jackson around 4pm but it was brief without any accumulation. We'll get it soon enough.

Good morning everyone! I hope y'all had a great summer/fall. I'm happy to report we are experiencing our first observed snowflakes of the 2021-2022 season here at 1500' in Jackson NH right now. I woke up to a steady rainfall and a temp of 39F but the flakes started mixing in once the temp dipped to 37F. Probably 85% rain 15% snow at the moment lol.

Pretty solid event in the high country last night. 3" at Hermit Lake, 5" at the Gray Knob manual snow plot, and 11" on the summit of MWN.

Impressive daytime temps today. We were up to 28F before the squalls started, and now it has slipped back down to 25F with a pretty good burst of snow currently. Mid 20s at midday on April 22nd is noteworthy.

Looks like heavy squalls are rolling through the western Whites right now based on the Lost River and Echo Lake road cams. For those unfamiliar, this is a pretty cool site:

https://vortex.plymouth.edu/webcam/rwis/

Partly sunny and 26F right now on the east side, but I'm thinking we could have some snow and/or graupel showers when we maximize our instability around midday. Doubtful we see much accumulation due to the high sun angle, but there could be some pretty heavy bursts. Spring on hold for now.

No wintry precip here, but we sure did get a solid hit of rain. 1.25" in the bucket with a current temp of 37F.

First thunder and lightning of the year here. 46F and 0.64" of rain so far today. Looks like it has flipped to snow on the other side of Crawford Notch.

Final tally for this event was 6.4" here in Jackson. 

5.6" here as of 3pm. Snowing big flakes at 33F.

28 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

And you had a pretty lean start too after missing out on the early December event (IIRC).

We managed 6" during the December 5th event, which completely hosed the valley. But yes, there was 14-20" above 2000' so that was a tough pill to swallow. Today's event will likely be the largest event since then, so the two biggest events of the season (at elevation) will both fall outside of astronomical winter lol.

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Definitely tells the tale of the season in eastern NNE.

Absolutely. My entire March total was a paltry 1.1 inches. The last 10 weeks have been about as lean as it gets around here.

Up to 2.8" as of 8:30. Snowiest day since 2/22 for now. When we exceed 3" it'll be the snowiest day since February 2nd.

1" down as of 7am. Feeling pretty good about this event in my area. Heaviest rates are forecast to occur from 12pm-5pm today which should offset the daytime factor. Currently 31/29 with accumulation even on paved surfaces. Hopefully this event can push my seasonal total up and over the 70" mark.

9 hours ago, alex said:

I guess we weren't done. Snow depth up to 3.6" and snowing nicely again

I skied the Cog today and was blown away by the conditions there! It was totally sunny driving from Jackson to Crawford Notch, but once we reached the AMC Highland Center it started snowing and continued all the way to Marshfield Station. I estimated 6" of new snow at the base of the Cog when we arrived at noon, which increased to 7-8" by the time we left at 3pm. Super low density "blower pow" as we call it; would've made for some of the best turns of the season if not for the thin base due to the recent warmth/rain. There were definitely some sharks in the water today!

Just now, STILL N OF PIKE said:

96" is pitiful for Wildcat.  What a total lack of synoptic events there.

This was a rough year in the Eastern Whites. Here at 1500' in Jackson, I Iogged exactly five events of 6" or greater...the most recent of which occurred back on February 2nd. My total snowfall for the month of March will end up at 1.3 inches. My seasonal total of 61" is probably close to 50% of what should be expected for this location. Maybe not quite at 2016 levels...but close. Looking forward to next year.

21 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

The 2" of chalky snow that BW received helped make the conditions passable today. Was extremely icy, but areas that had some fresh snow were decent.

Only one lift was running due to wind holds, however, which meant that there were only like three trails available. We had the mountain to ourselves, basically.

I skinned at Bretton Woods today! Very interesting mix of wet snow and fast ice. But I did enjoy the lack of crowds, and skinning allowed me to access the summit. Probably the only person to ski from the summit today haha.

After a high of 65F today, we quickly dipped to 47F shortly after sunset but we have since jumped back to 58F on a pretty gusty south to southwest wind. Full on torch at this elevation right now. 

Up to 63F here. Warmest day since November 12th.

High of 48F here yesterday - warmest day since Christmas. Starting out at 36F this morning but it looks like it's already 44F at 4000' on the Mount Washington Auto Road. Toasty couple of days ahead.

Skied the Gulf of Slides yesterday in legit spring conditions. The snowpack is definitely lean for mid March in the alpine, and there were even some ice bulges to negotiate which I can't say I've ever encountered in the GOS in March before. Two nights without a refreeze will take a bit of a toll, but then it looks like things lock up this weekend.

Euro and GFS both have some fun next week. Not much ensemble support at the moment, but at least there is something to watch for the first time in quite a while. At the very least, it looks like winter temperatures will be returning. Hopefully we can pick up some snow on top of it. 

4 hours ago, powderfreak said:

This is my attitude as well. Enjoy each winter for what it is.  Like you, my biggest event was 10” in one time way back on November 2-3 upslope event.  But for whatever reason it’s still be a very enjoyable winter for frequent snows and long access to winter recreation.

We see what next year brings and most of the enjoyment is seeing how Nature will roll out the next winter.  I’ve had far less enjoyable winters that have featured larger storms.

Detaching enjoyment of winter from a climo comparison also helps. When I first moved up I think I found it very hard to enjoy a winter if it was below the median.  Like a mental block, if snowfall and the Mansfield stake was below the average I couldn’t enjoy it.  Maybe it’s living in VT longer and that chill attitude of overall experience has penetrated deeper into me that enjoyment doesn’t need to be related to numbers, ha.  Either that or ‘15-16 just broke me and since then I’m very happy with more than 50”.

Just take what’s thrown at you and we see what the character of next winter brings.

I agree with this immensely. I am positive that my 61" seasonal total is way below average (my seasonal total should end up in the 100-120" range)...granted we still have a good five weeks to realistically add to this. But I have logged 67 days with at least one downhill ski descent, including three top-to-bottom descents from the summit of Mount Washington down to the Cog Railway station...so I've had a tremendous amount of winter fun, regardless of the sub-par snowpack. There's been enough snow and persistent cold to satisfy my needs for the most part.

There is still a chance for a late season rally, especially in the alpine. Last year on this date, there was a lean 63" snow depth at the Hermit Lake plot on Mount Washington. By May 1st, the snow depth had increased to 100" due to an absolute bombardment of elevation-driven storms in April and early May. I certainly don't expect a similar outcome this year, but I'm pretty confident I will be skiing the ravines and snowfields through May no matter how the rest of the winter and spring pans out.

Spent the weekend at Baxter State Park in Maine, and saw the meteor driving west on 302 near Fryeburg ME on the trip home last night. Can't imagine how bright that thing would have been in the middle of the night! I didn't hear any noise since I was in my car, but I don't know I've heard of any other eyewitness accounts from the state of Maine yet. I was basically a couple miles from the NH border. Pretty wild!

Baxter State Park was absolutely stunning, though very cold and windy. We made a push for the summit of Mount Katahdin on Saturday with the hope of skiing down Abol Slide, but it was just too cold and windy to venture far above treeline...and the snow was a little too slabby for my liking. Ended up skiing back down the hiking trail, which may have been more precarious than the slide...but sometimes that's how it goes in New England!

15 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Damn. Not a branch out of place up here. 

Based on the outage map, it seems that my area was in a localized pocket of pretty significant damage. 71% of Jackson was still in the dark last I checked.

This turned into quite the event in my neighborhood. The power went out around 9am this morning, and I relocated to a friend's house in North Conway to work for the day. While I was gone, several trees came down on wires across my driveway and I currently cannot get back to my house. Power remains out, and the house has no heat or water. I'll be spending the night in North Conway and hopefully all is restored by morning.

We were without power for exactly 24 hours following Tropical Storm Isaias in August, so this is the second prolonged outage I have experienced in six months.

Managed to get out for a quick lap at Black Mountain around 7:30 this morning. I would call it "boilerplate" conditions. The upper portion of the mountain definitely had a heavy glazing yesterday, and any ski tracks that were made in the soft wet snow conditions lower on the mountain froze into hard, impenetrable ruts. No trail maintenance was done during the night. Between the sketchy snow conditions, plus all the crap that has blown down (sticks, twigs, pine needles, etc.)...I think it's safe to say it's some of the worst inbounds skiing I've ever experienced lol.

Normally I skin in a base layer and very light shell but today I went full arctic gear with puffy, balaclava, helmet and goggles on the uphill. One lap was good enough.

Back at home, we're up to 5F and my sheltered anemometer has registered a peak gust of 39 mph so far. It's cranking out there.

Looks like Hermit Lake picked up 3" in squalls overnight, but with a current air temp of -16F I'm all set with touring up there this morning ha. Between yesterday's rain and today's arctic blast, this will be my first time missing back-to-back mornings since before Christmas! -3F here at 1500' right now, which is a tie for my low for the winter.