powderfreak

Dumping. Quick inch of squally fluff. Winter.

Overall a decent November up this way. Two solid advisory events, both high-QPF events that punched above their weight. Last night’s probably could’ve been in the warning criteria for impact, not that the headline matters, just as a way to rank them. A variety of snow showers, coatings, cold temperatures with good snowmaking. A degree or two below normal temps, maybe marginally better snow than average, and the mountain progressing as normal… normal is very good after recent seasons. Visually it’s winter out there. Stiff, water logged snow now freezing crisp as temp has hit 32F. A decent November overall given climo. Here’s a shot one of the snow surfaces team took last night of a parked snowcat outside the vehicle maintenance building. Things like last night happen when the strongest omega rides the snow growth zone.

I would have put the jackpot in the Sugarbush/MRG area. Maximized SE flow and cold/moisture combo. I also know that before we became overly OCD about measuring, this would’ve been a 10-14” storm total. So while standing out a bit there on the list, I do think Mansfield was in line with the others.

That map looks exactly like the HRRR and Canadian HRDPS did for like 24 hours prior to the event. They nailed it on the clown maps. I saw BTV mentioned they’d do a local study on the bust (fairly high impact event that didn’t even have an Advisory until 6pm), which will be interesting to read.

No his spot is probably one of the best in New England. Gorham is a neighboring town that doesn’t get nearly the snow. So he’d see the PNS and then drive through it to find a fraction of the snow.

Yeah I’m not saying that’s impossible but in my experience heavy wet snows are over estimated if no one measured them. BTV didn’t get any inhabited reports over 12”… even up at 1800ft spotters were in the 9-11” range it looked like. That fits with bwt’s “almost a foot” at 1850ft too. Personally I think it was probably 8-12” at most higher elevations with 1-1.25” of water. Plenty of folks today at Stowe were saying the 8-9” of dense at base was a foot. I think just the dense snow type makes it seem like so much more. Step into it and it’s like wow, this is a foot of real deal snow!

That drove Phin up a damn wall every time. He was big on that as it painted Gorham in a positive snow light… and it wasn’t the case.

Gonna call it 10” here I think as I can’t prove a foot or more… though with this heavy wet snow you could say any number up to 16” and it would probably past the “feel” test. I just cannot estimate a snowfall number, it goes against my weather morals… much to the chagrin of people who think it’s 12-14” on Mansfield lol. Nice trenches up high (friend photo when they opened Upper Hayride).

It had to snow 2”/hr at some points last night. The mountains got 10+ at elevation in like 6-8 hours. Most places seemed to do at least an inch of QPF in short order.

I’m hearing 10-12” Mansfield. Only ski on the top 4” of it though. Given QPF of 1.00-1.20” if you get into the 10:1 ratio zone it’s probably a foot. Did not expect 6-7” down at 750ft.

Damage. Neighbor has a good tree down that looks like it grazed the house. Our young birches in trouble.

I don’t know. The clown maps were right but the models were pretty sketchy looking for thermals. It’s rare for the clowns to come out on top. Euro at 18z was above 0C at 850mb overnight. Most of the thermals were super marginal and many models showed above 0C at some part of the column. But I think the ticks West got us into just strong heavy lift. Best lift was in DGZ too.

Birch in the yard is just flattened. What an over performer. Measuring about 7” on colder surfaces at home.

Full on war zone. Birch bender. 6-8” up at 1500ft. Backyard cam.

I-89 in Waterbury and then the RT 108 near the Stowe base area.

2”+ of paste now on the evergreens. It is getting wetter. End is near or there may be some power outages. Silver dollar flakes.

Not very exciting night outside of a low population NNE area. Too many posts in a row for me. But sort of a weenie worthy evening locally. RT 108/Mountain Road cam almost to the ski area base, just past the VT State Ski Dorm.

Snowing very hard here to start. Pasty snow down in the valley bottom at 750ft.

If only it was cold and not a marginal -1C to +1C thermal column… and the 10:1 maps were a possibility. Theres a lot of QPF tonight. Above the snow line is going to get an absolute paste bomb. Hopefully the Spine can hold onto snow above 2,000.

Pretty wild thermal differences between east of Mansfield and west of the mountain. 31F base of Stowe vs 41F in Underhill on west slope. Light snow in town with gusty winds. Sticking now, ground seems cold at least.

We went from a quarter inch grazing of QPF to maybe an inch of rain tonight. Above 2000ft on the mountain is real marginal. Could go either way up high. Need these west shifts when it’s cold enough.

Yeah I use 925 as at least 2500ft and 850 is 4500-5000ft.

17F. Tonight looks like it could be a fairly decent elevation snow event for parts of VT and especially NH/ME.

Lets go clowns.

Sitting at 11F here. MVL at 12F. Its cold.