powderfreak

The cynical skier is a classic New England pastime. I’m heading out now for a couple runs. There’s a lot of people who want to ski surprisingly. Meeting some friends.

Nah refunds or credit for another day flying out up here. However it is surprisingly busy all things considered.

-8F at MVL at 9AM. -12F here at work at the ski area at 1500ft. Arctic tundra conditions. Low visibility arctic haze, light snow and crystals. High winds with blowing and drifting.

He knows what to do… get into the win-win zone. He wins the bet, gets to back pat. Loses it, he gets snow. The brilliant way to wager is when losing gives you satisfaction too.

Down to 0F at home and -3F at 1500ft. 1” of new snow or so eyeballing it.

Obs look great. Local MVL ASOS with the M1/4 visibility. Gusted near 40mph too. METAR KMVL 030510Z AUTO 33015G21KT M1/4SM +SN FZFG VV007 M07/M09 A2961 METAR KMVL 030505Z AUTO 33014KT M1/4SM +SN FZFG VV010 M07/M09 A2961 RMK AO2 PK WND 31027/0502 WSHFT 0451 P0000 T10671089 METAR KMVL 030500Z AUTO 32021KT M1/4SM +SN FZFG VV013 M06/M08 A2962 KMVL 030458Z AUTO 32022G34KT 1/4SM +SN FZFG VV014 M06/M08 A2962 RMK AO2 PK WND 32034/0457

Yeah those are the cold shots. You get the wind chill of -30F the day before (like -7F with a breeze) and then get the ambient temp of -30F the morning after with clear/calm. Real and fake at the same readings lol.

MSS gusted 40kts in M1/4 +SN. Some good obs from upstate NY. Winds are hammering out of the south ahead of the FROPA. VT Road Conditions page with a lot of reports of accidents and vehicles off roads in the Champlain Valley around BTV from blowing and drifting snow. Plows out despite no falling snow. The real joke is the road named Cheesecake Factory with no Cheesecake Factory in the state.

Yeah I guess the type of winter we’ve had goes into it. Just surprising during/near climo coldest time of year. If January was normal temps, you’d imagine it doesn’t happen. Who knows.

I’m not gonna lie, if it’s for temps single digits or teens… I’d think they should cancel for humidity and decent heat in warm season too. At least once you are at school you are in heat… but when it’s warm outside, you are baking in non-A/C rooms. That sounds much worse. But I guess it’s all relative to climo. They get let out in the Deep South for stuff Kev runs in Under Armor and t-shirt/shorts.

I think we’ll squall nicely. Too bad it’s midnight.

Snowfall wise it wasn’t as much above here as it was points south towards CVT and NH/ME I think. The mountains are hard as average isn’t really there, but BTV was spot on normal January snow. Near me the Worcester, VT COOP had 29” on a 27” average for January. Newport and Sutton looks average. Could call it average to a bit above in spots. More above south/central regions of NNE.

And now a bunch of us in NNE are thinking, it was +7 to +11 for temps in January but above average on snow, hmmm, maybe it’s not the worst? Just like when a -NAO leads to suppression, we no longer like -NAOs . This month will be cited for decades to come in the “it can be ridiculously mild and still snow in NNE” lectures, ha.

HRRR going full on.

It’s open today. Grooming got it all cleaned up last night. You made the right choice with switching the timing.

Holy shit that’s bonkers. HRRR end of run, but still, -24F up here by Friday evening. It has -17F here by 8am. 7PM Fri…

Yeah there’s something about wind when each time it blows, it’s colder than it was. The opposite of the normal diurnal curve and region wide 15-20F drop during the day should be jarring.

Up this way, not often you wake up to sub-zero at -2F at 6am… and then at 6pm when folks are heading home it’s -17F. Friday is probably the most impactful day to be honest… everyone focused on Sat AM. Friday afternoon and evening looks brutal with wind. Really everywhere, that’s a big daytime drop even big cities. Mid-20s BOS suburbs morning commute, near 0F evening commute?

Makes you enjoy the snow when you get it, any amount. Once you take it for granted, Mother Nature reminds you.

That’s bonkers at 925 with -30C deep into SNE.

Yep. Interior SNE it makes sense, even over by ALB my folks can peak higher from a big event or two, it’s just much shorter lived. But on the water in Weymouth, ha, those were special times. That’s why can’t get too mad when you get a January like this when it snows up north, ha. There are bound to be some stiff gradients at times to mellow out the years of Scooter bombs.

Some atrocious depths in N/NW there lol.

Snowy afternoon ahead of the cold. Some lake moisture off Ontario hitting the mountain and good snow growth. Wintry vibes.

Snow keeps coming. Another fluffer this afternoon. Snow boards didn't accumulate much but it seemed real deep above 3,000ft board level on top of Gondola. That top 500 feet was fluffed.

Yeah it was unfortunate. It is scheduled tomorrow and grooming is expected to get it. There was a bunch of snow made up on Jake's Ride/near the top of the Toll House lift. Grooming was pushing it out but they had a snowcat go down and the trail was unable to be finished with rubble, cat tracks and unskiable stuff. That prevented skiers from getting off the lift and getting out of that top area (technically a snow/surface condition issue). So the decision was made to not open. The grooming team will clean it up tonight and it is expected tomorrow. I'm in at 5am and will hopefully get the all-clear when I radio the grooming team. If I remember I can shoot you a private message. Definitely an unplanned thing today. I'm confident it'll open tomorrow and stay open.