powderfreak

I haven’t seen Stowe this dead in a while. We were on Nosedive without a soul and almost thought they put the Quad on hold lol. Snow is phenomenal mid-winter powder, packed powder and wind buff. Even the locals have packed it in it seems.

Must’ve moved over there… getting some breaks of sun now at the mountain.

Yeah that’s the experience this time of year outside the mountain elevations. My yard has been covered white I think 3 times last few mornings and then it disappears during the day. Wake up and dusted white again, repeat. The difference between here and 1500ft is stark… plow piles and stuff.

1" past 12 hours at the mountain, just a persistent flurry. But it continues this evening. Long duration upslope flow.... wringing out the absolute last bit of moisture as small flakes in this artic airmass over the Spine. Can see the diminishing feed but still blocked enough to keep the -SN going.

The density has been perfect. Above mid-mountain it started really wet and dense with 4" over 24 hours (likely 0.50+ water) that covered the underlying wet snow/ice base. The earliest snow fell on top of the wet snowpack, not an icy sheen, which led to a great interface between the layers. Then we got the QPF rich but colder, dense snow on Sunday morning... probably adding another 3/4ths of an inch of water. The last part was arctic cold, wind packed snow. No fake fluff here... the 15" in the past 4 days was likely a good 1.50" QPF of frozen precip at the snow plots. Dense stuff. Very localized. That's a game changing amount of frozen water for skiers. A while back the models were definitely showing a solid period of frozen QPF... I doubted it to be honest, but it pulled through for the hill.

Max of 17F at MVL here in the valley. Currently 12 degrees with light snow falling. Feels like mid-January.

Skiing right now is some of the best of the season on the top 1,000 vertical feet. We are at 15" in the past 4 days at the High Road Plot. 11" since Saturday evening. There's absolutely no one skiing this afternoon either... prime lines sitting untouched hours after the Gondola opened at Noon (morning wind hold). 2:30 PM and just full on powder party. Patrol dropped the ropes on the Upper Starr, Upper Goat, Upper Liftline, etc... stuff that when it's open you know the skiing is good. Mid-winter powder day again.

I still can't get over this, ha. This is bonkers. Cornwall, VT last night... middle of the Champlain Valley. Just an isolated 8-10" over like one town out in the valley with a dusting only a few miles away. No topography at all.

Crazy, looks like a COOP observer had 7" on 0.43" liquid in that area of Cornwall.

This is crazy... a couple places in Cornwall, VT picked up 8-10" in like 3-4 hours. This is in the middle of the Champlain Valley last night. Addison County. Even this morning it had settled but still 7.5" at a friend's. He said there's like no snow just a few miles away. Like that hill in the distance behind the red barn looks largely bare or just coated.

Talking about weird squalls... a buddy in Cornwall, VT picked up 8-10" in like 3-4 hours. This is in the middle of the Champlain Valley last night. Addison County. He said there's like no snow just a few miles away. Like that hill in the distance behind the red barn looks largely bare or just coated.

It's not the height of the wind that matters, it's the direction of it, speed, and veering or changes with height. There's always some wind flow in all levels of the atmosphere. I'll try to write something a bit longer when I get a few minutes.

Can't beat that explanation. It's the best tool I use in real time to associate with upslope precipitation. There are always subtle hints in that product that explain why precip is occurring where it is. Wind flow is 100% the key to precipitation generation around these parts on mesoscale levels. Getting to look at a vertical slice of perceived wind directly over BTV is one helluva tool. I've been looking at that for a decade or more and comparing it to the orographic signal... that product and vertical profile of airflow is critical to understanding upslope snow. The elevation that the winds veer matters.

Go for the extremes… find a place that does summer exceptionally well on the coast, or a place that does winter well in the mountains. Put the chips all in on a season, ha. None of this middle ground stuff.

Today had a great vibe. It was a good one out in the Northern Greens. These mountains do surprise powder days better than anyone else in the northeast. No week long Winter Storm Watch/Warning hype, just a chance of snow showers that led to one of the best mornings in weeks. I hate boasting about it, but it's hard to not mention... the local ski areas around here experience the most frequent fresh snow days of the region. Today was another one of those.

That's awesome. Bet that was a fun trip. Feel free to share some other shots once you get settled back home, ha.

It’s super blocked right now. Just flurries leaving the mountain and can see all the way to the ridge line. VAD usually tells the story… most veering in the lowest 4,000ft with sharp NW flow under a more general W to even slightly SW flow aloft. Not a strong flow either, just gently sloshing air in the Champlain Valley off the flat lake plain and into the foothills… but enough to rip out some good precip there upstream of the barrier.

A dense 3.5” at the 1500ft plot at Barnes Camp to end the day. There’s some QPF meat in this. Its definitely back to winter in the base area.

Got 2.5-3” at 1500ft but starting to melt back now… dripping off the branches. Sun trying to poke through.

It's a full on powder day above mid-mountain. We found 6" at 3,000ft High Road Plot and piling up. It skis like it too... dense with some body.

We get a lot of early dry heat up this way in spring… maybe not “heat” though the mountain valleys like SLK/MVL/HIE/BML have had some high numbers in May recently… but a lot of like 80/40 type stuff seems to becoming more common up this way outside the Atlantic influence.

Some good pulses of moderate to heavy snow when 30-35dbz ripples across.

Dumping this morning. 1500ft is winter again. Snow accums start around 900ft. Plows out above Harlow Hill.

Another inch. Nickel and dime at the picnic tables.

Winter on the upper mountain, spring down low these days. It's that time of year. 4 inches have fallen on the upper mountain, while a 0.4" coating (from last night's diurnal minimum) melted fast today back to stick season and leaf litter down low.