powderfreak

I won’t lie, today was 32/7. Close enough to normal (which is 27/4). But with the full sun it felt oddly March-like. Walking the dog on the groomed path in town this afternoon, and the high-water content snowpack was starting to glisten a bit. It was starting to corn up into a thin layer of wet granular, the type of stuff solar radiation does coming into spring.

Thats the aftermath of a +8 January. February has started +13! 33/23 average in the early Feb days… absolute torch at +13. Its been so warm in the record book departures.

The time of groom on any trail at any mountain does matter depending on the conditions and if you are there early. First skiers down something groomed at 5-8pm, can notice a difference in the surface verses a trail groomed at 4-7am. Like a field that was just plowed vs one that has settled out. The firm surface holds up better into the day, but the recent one is noticeably more enjoyable at first crack.

It depends on the shifts. Since Perry Merrill is the evening uphill route for skinning, that pod gets done after midnight every day. FourRunner blue terrain is largely before midnight. Some of that isn’t operator either, but stuff groomed earlier in the night is firmer as a rule because it has time to cool and set. Gondola stuff is usually good because it’s been groomed under 5 hours to open and sometimes just an hour before opening. That stuff is freshly tilled with more air in it as it hasn’t had time to set. So it skis softer.

Perry Merrill has been the trail of the season since it opened. Just pristine every day. Veteran groomer on that most mornings with like decades of experience.

What a glorious day of sunshine.

What a day.

See I sort of agree but a winter turn around like 2007 would disagree. February, March, April all featured monster storms and big snows up here. Got like 6 feet in April 2007 at the ski area. Valentines Day, St Patty’s Day, Tax Day, etc. All had high-end storms mixed with a lot of smaller events. If it turns around enough it can erase Dec/Jan. But it needs to be sustained over two full months or more.

Man, to see the sun again. What a treat. Some awesome alpenglow this morning too as the sun first came up.

31F. Normal is 3F. Very low diurnal spreads lately.

Last night we were +28 on the minimum and the day was only +10. Mean temp once again near freezing with no snowmelt despite a +19 daily departure. What a wild pattern. Like the highest possible departures you can get while still being able to keep water frozen for the most part.

Definitely craving some sunshine at this point. Starting to go a bit crazy, ha. Afternoon report… Snow Reporter’s Notes Friday, February 2 at 4 PM Today saw a nice improvement in snow conditions thanks to last night’s light snowfall. The High Road Snow Plot at 3,000ft saw 3 inches of relatively dense snowfall last night, while a healthy inch fell at the base, and it was just enough to enhance the experience today. The winter scene out there was beautiful too, with snow clinging to the frosted trees across the resort. Looking ahead to tomorrow, the forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies in the morning, but then a curious thing may happen. Skies may go partly sunny during the afternoon! We haven’t seen the sun in at least a week, so fingers crossed that giant bright orb in the sky makes an appearance at some point this weekend. Temperatures will be seasonable for February in Vermont with highs ranging from the mid-10s at the summit to the mid-20s in the base area. Ridgetop winds should be out of the north at 15 - 30 miles per hour and usually winds of those speeds do not affect our lift operations.” I’m so done with days and days of this…

High Road Snow Plot on Mansfield had a dense 3”. Felt more like synoptic snow than orographic fare.

I agree with this. I think the mean temperatures in a given season affects larger environmental systems than our personal opinion of that season.

It definitely affects the minimums more. Which begs the question of its importance to snowfall. If 30/17 is +8, does it really matter if the mean is below freezing and snow is on the ground? If overnight temps are 10-15 degrees above normal but daytimes are chilly, do we even experience it as a public that moves about during daylight hours? The public perception is definitely mitigated by daytime temps.

It’s pretty incredible to have only 2 days of the month exceed 40F… but yet be at +8.1 for a departure. We’ve had snow cover basically the whole time it feels like, like the type of snow that makes you want to follow the previous footsteps. But +8 is a big departure.

That’s also a good theme of this winter. We missed the last event, but have also had long periods of time with caked and pasted trees previously. Those snowfalls and the ensuing “cold” have often had a good period of barely below freezing temps… keeps things plastered but doesn’t dry snow out to cold dust. It’s a very maritime snow look. And then eventually it warms up and process repeats with another marginal system moving through the area. If you score, it’s a nice visual hit.

We just went +8.1F locally at MVL in January… Saint Johnsbury (1V4) with a period of record to 1800s was also +8.1F. SLK at +7.2F… BTV +6.1 (less reliant on mins). It turned into a +6 to +8 above normal January here. Thats pretty high-end to have temps of 30.2/17.4 for a mean up here.

Yesterday was a good example of this winter for temps up here. High of 34F (+8) and low of 27F (+24). The normal min is 3F right now. That is so far from what we’ve experienced. Last year min was -1F, where it should be. Nights in the NNE mountain valleys should be around 0F and climo is just getting crushed relative to normal.

I’m definitely jonesing for a period of trackable winter weather. Even up here tonight is 33F with unknown precipitation at the ASOS… white rain. It’s just been so warm. Flooding North America with Pacific air… chilly but not cold. It hasn’t been like super warm with days in the 40s up here. It’s just maritime air Pacific or Atlantic that rots around freezing… days aren’t super warm but the nights are torches. We need a legit cold air supply for a sustained period of time.

Some people just want to be contrarian. Be it in weather, sports, life, etc. Like this compulsive need to offer the opposite of group think whether they believe it or not. Like if everyone suddenly hated snow and the forum collectively was constantly looking for a 60F day in the winter, I think some of these guys would start posting long range cold maps.

A couple breaks gave briefly passing brightening of the base and mid-slope. Top station remained in the rime cloud. 2,100+ vertical rise for the Mansfield Gondola.

See that matters right there. Consistent snow cover, even if it’s not deep winter. Every winter day with no grass visible is a good day.

Now that’s an expensive body.

We had some brief brightening for seconds at a time today. If we could go full bluebird with the rime ice layer starting on trees at like 1500ft, the views would be incredible. Only the valley at 750-1500ft isn’t rimed up. Stratus layer has been stuck for days at mid-slope and summits.