bobbutts

Warning for that cell near Grantham

OK 1 last pic

Got some small hail and wind from the bonus cell there.

Not half bad.  Of course it missed me to the north but has lots of lightning and big hail at least per radar.

Looking forward to watching it skirt by to my north.

71 still here.  Yesterday was about 10 degrees short of forecast.  Seems like we'll repeat that.

Seems I'm wedged between heavier snow north and south.  Looks like about 1-2" accumulation.  Wind is howling at times.  22f.

18 hours ago, J.Spin said:

I’ve been a bit too busy so far this week to write up my weekend ski/snow observations, but I’ve had a few moments now to put some comments and images together.  It was an absolute tale of two seasons out there this weekend, with midwinter conditions and powder available on Saturday, then beautiful warm weather and spring snow on Sunday.

My wife and I headed out for some turns on Saturday morning, thinking that was clearly going to be the better day for skiing over the weekend.  Temperatures were in the 20s F, so it was quite nice in that regard, but we were curious to see how the trail conditions were faring after the midweek clippers.  Despite all the new snow, trail conditions were fairly poor, even at a relatively low traffic resort like Bolton.  The powder that hadn’t been touched was actually skiing really well, but untracked areas were few and far between on the lift-served terrain after the completion of school vacation week and the extension of the break period into Monday and Tuesday that most local schools had.  I actually think some low to moderate angle backcountry might have even been the better call based on the sharp contrast in snow quality between the on piste vs. off piste conditions we found.

The clippers were nice, and were potent enough that they made for some great short term conditions while the snow had its loft, but there just wasn’t enough liquid equivalent in there to really set up for lasting improvement in the on piste snow surfaces.  Those systems, and even Winter Storm Oaklee before it, were fairy cold from start to finish.  That meant that there wasn’t any notable dense snow to bond to the underlying subsurface, and the light, dry snow eventually just gets pushed around, bringing you back to whatever hard base was there before.  My numbers show that these past four storms (there was also a smaller system with squalls between Oaklee and the two larger clippers) actually put down over an inch of liquid equivalent here in the valley.  But even with somewhat more than that in the mountains, it wasn’t going to be enough to hold up to lift-served levels of skier traffic.  Even more than usual on Saturday we found a huge difference between the quality of the manmade subsurfaces and the natural subsurfaces.  My wife commented on it during one of our runs because the difference was so extreme that it jumped right out to her.  Based on what we encountered, it seemed like the denser manmade base areas had an even harder time incorporating the new snow than the natural snow terrain.

 

I hadn’t planned to ski on Sunday, thinking it was just going to be a rainy day, but the sky cleared out in the afternoon to produce a beautiful, warm, early spring day.  Seeing that, my younger son and I popped up to the mountain for some runs.  In a classic reversal of Saturday, this was a situation where the terrain with manmade snow provided the superior skiing.  Manmade snow is dense enough that it generally transitions quickly to an appropriate spring snow surface, while the natural snow initially gets sticky with warm temperatures and requires some freeze/thaw cycles before it really primes up.  Trail pitch mattered as well, and low angle terrain was the toughest in terms of movement.  We talked to a couple of guys in the parking lot who said that the flat terrain was brutally slow.

We spent our whole session on Sunday at Timberline, and the resort had recently put down a bunch of manmade snow under the quad that provided great turns in the warm temperatures.  We did venture off to flatter terrain on one run per my son’s request, just to see what it was like.  After that, the difficulty in traveling on flat terrain was made abundantly clear, and we just spent the rest or the time lapping the good snow on the Showtime trail under the Timberline Quad.  The snow was great for railing carves and generally having a fun springtime ski session.  Also, there was hardly anyone at the resort, probably because they had assumed it was going to be a dreary day like we’d thought.  When we arrived in the early afternoon, there were three cars in the upper Timberline lot.

If you haven't tried it check out Zardoz not wax.  Works really well on that sticky snow.  Like a total game changer on sticky snow.

First flakes 34f

14 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Or those with solid medical benefits.  Has that been open this year?

I've seen it open before but never once in a condition I'd attempt it in.  Reminds me of the terrain out west that requires triple digit snowpack to open only they never get that kind of pack at cannon.

Down to just piles from snow removal and some icy patches in shaded areas here in Bow.  Never had a deep pack but it seemed pretty sturdy before this warmup.

About what time does the snow end in the Pioneer Valley area?

1 hour ago, eekuasepinniW said:

lol still 37 here

I was wondering what was up with the 34 low forecast last night.. We were 52 at the time and the temp only went up.. Guess there were major differences within a short distance.

64

Just now, dendrite said:

About 2” of shit out there.

Just tried clearing a bit.. This sucks.  3 passes with the snow thrower lifting the back so the front digs in and that gets it close.  End of the driveway is a lost cause, it's frozen solid.

9 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Whole house just shook and rumbled. Is thunder snow even on the table with this? It was weird as hell. Woke up my kids so it wasn't just my drunk ass hallucinating.

https://www.wmur.com/article/earthquake-rattles-gorham/38979936

Quote

GORHAM, N.H. —

People in the Gorham area were awoken to an earthquake early Friday morning.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 2.9-magnitude earthquake hit around 12:39 a.m. just south-southwest of Gorham.

 

Gorham police told News 9 the tremor could be felt in Berlin, Groveton, North Conway and other surrounding areas.

Police said there were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries.

That's alot of IP on the latest NAM.  Looks like about 1" QPF of it. Still 43 here.

Barely snowing still, fraction of an inch.  16

3 minutes ago, Sey-Mour Snow said:

any videos from SEMASS cmon guys share something good, we are living vicariously through you here.

Cloudy and 23f

I remember in the 80's or 90's Schwoegler forecast 20-30" for my location N. Shore MA and we got an inch or two.

This thing has my interest now.

2 minutes ago, weatherwiz said:

How did people live before model snowfall maps

It was hard.  Wait for the local newscast at 6 and 11.

I feel like the big draw of an electric is for the person that makes a regular commute and has a garage to charge overnight.  They'll rarely to never use a charger besides at home.  The same kind of person that probably already has a gas or hybrid suv for longer trips.  People who are using them for more than very occasional long trips now are early adopter types who are ok with the extra pain.  Won't take that long to cover more and more use cases as range increases and there are more and more chargers that can work faster and faster.