powderfreak

Lol it’s amazing the obsession with drought.

It’s white at 1500ft, a light pasting on the trees. Pretty tight line around 1300-1400ft. Lifts all iced up from the changeover from moist to frozen. 2” of paste above 3,000ft.

High-end.. nice work. Power companies are pretty good with weather too in the mountains, shouldn't be more than a few hours at most (unless it's a localized "completely f'ed)." I feel like I saw your neighbor mention losing power a few times but probably before you moved in. This is a high-end weather event IMO relative to climo. The upper level energy was strong and the warm air advection with it was strong. It was primed to lead to pockets of wind damage as the leading edge of that H5 vort max swung through. At least it's been an interesting day meteorologically.

That’s awesome. The first moose and every one after that is always exciting. The NNE wildlife is awesome, I’ve been thinking the bears will show up soon with this weather. Animals are on the move this time of year. Its time for activity when the conditions seem like the warm season. They don’t know climo, they just go by cues... I’m sure that’s a memorable sight for the kids.

Let’s add today... 72 hours after the first photo. River will start eating away at the neighbor’s lawn soon. Still rising. The drought is real up here. Glad Dr. Dews was concerned about water in VT .

Middlebury Snow Bowl, lol. Yeah we had some good pulses of wind at Stowe but it’s hard to compare because winter usually brings some extreme synoptic gusts... so some t-storm pulse gusts to 50mph would stand out big in July but right now it’s like another windy day. If that makes sense. We’ve had some big wind events lately too out of the NW... I do think if today hit in mid-summer that wind would’ve been something but wasn’t all that impressive right now relative to the other recent stuff. The rain though, it just won’t quit. So much water leaving the mountains.

Yeah that happened first, lol. Then it got pitch black and t-storms came next. Felt summery in the sunny warm sector.

This one isn't missing. Torrential rain and thunder. Back on hold for lightning.

Yeah that first round didn't leave that much rain, maybe a quarter inch at the mtn. I think this squall line is going to dump some water.

Ha yeah I was on the Stowe twitter and Tim Kelly tweeting to Duck and Cover. Velocity scans seemed to weaken a bit. Still a pretty solid line. Suns out now and it feels humid all the sudden. Crazy weather.

We went on hold at 11:44am for thunder up here at the ski area. Nothing on the lightning maps but was called into dispatch by both guests and ski patrol. Not sure how those lightning sensors work that well.

Oh it’s at May 22nd levels last year. Mentioned that on the Snow Phone Report today, ha. Its a melt similar to 2012, maybe not quite that but it’s not done yet with another rainstorm coming. We just don’t like angst here in VT, we’ll find a way to turn it into a positive, .

Yeah 2011-12, 2015-16 especially, those are fails in the past decade. This was a long duration of off-piste skiing that a D/F winter won’t have. We literally never went in the woods in 15-16. Hard to describe, but this season just didn’t feel *that* bad from a “feel” standpoint. Anytime it doesn’t rain for 6+ weeks is a good stretch. This year had it's moment when you stack up snowfalls for weeks on end, even if they are light.

That week will still be king from 2012... but this week definitely gave it a run for it’s money. But second class for sure. I always remember your spring trips Ginxy, good stuff.

I won’t lie, I still think we have one in the bank. It would be very hard to completely miss on a synoptic event from March 1 onward for the mountains. Maybe it comes April 15th on Tax Day (it has in the past), or even April 27-28th in 2010 when 5-24” (5” BTV, 24” at 3,000ft plot) fell across NNE. Led to May 1st snow cover in the mountains. CoCoRAHS early days back then.

Regardless of ski area, the story is similar. The snow depth on Mansfield at the fabled COOP stake is at 36”. Last year it was May 22nd before the depth dropped below that level. Two full months later than today, I was hiking with the dog with a similar snowpack up high. This is turning into an impressive melt, with the rain and maybe some convection still to come.

The crowds? Snowmaking? Grooming? Everything is worse now? I'm a little curious too but I am always careful as a VR employee to push it too far (full disclosure, they seem to treat me well and pay me far better with benefits, bonuses, etc than previous ownership and nearby competitors. I don't care who the owner is, I love Stowe and Mount Mansfield so my opinions will reflect those locally) . I do like to ask opinions though as maybe I can help avoid it or do little things to change that when the opportunities present themselves. I'm no big wig but for some reason they respect me and I feel like I have a voice. In the industry there is what is termed the "Vail Sucks Guy" that sort of follows a certain pattern. You said everything Vail touches turns to shit and then @bwt3650 gave some examples he saw, and hit the nail on the head about remote customer service just being completely unprepared for the call volume. Embarrassing. It seemed like an honest thought process of pros and cons. That's what we We always talk about it because we want to know what's wrong but the majority of comments seem to be of a "Vail Sucks Guy" mentality. Here's the condensed definition from the Storm Skiing Journal: "Do you want Vail Sucks Guy to elaborate? Good luck. There are plenty of thoughtful critiques of Vail out there. They did not come from Vail Sucks Guy. Vail Sucks Guy knows “a lot” of people who have been screwed over by Vail. Vail Sucks Guy could tell you some stories. But he won’t. Instead, Vail Sucks Guy is just going to tell you that Vail sucks."

Yeah i think the wet bulbs were still in like the upper 30s up here when it was 63F at 8% RH. It reminded me of a trip to the Arizona hills in April a few years back when the super dry air would have it feel like summer at 75F in the sun, but literally the minute the shadow grew in the evening it would drop to under 50F in what felt like minutes. The type of stuff where hikers in the Grand Canyon are struggling due to heat exhaustion and then like 2-3 hours later going hypothermic with the loss of the sun in those 3-4% RH air masses where they do 50-60 degree diurnal ranges on the Canyon floors. The wet bulb is still so low.

Yeah just gone from down here in the valley... poof with the dews. It was like nothing was happening at 60+ degrees when dews were in the teens. One day of 50 dews and she gone.

It is mind blowing how much dew point and not temperature matters with melting snow. We melted more snow today than the previous like 3-4 days combined. Temperatures are within 5-10 degrees but the dews of 17F vs today’s 50F was eye opening. River is steadily rising and upcoming rain plus draining mountain snow melt should fill the channel. This is a 48 hour change:

A 186 hour storm total map that started a storm at like 210 hours out. Pretty high standards for one Euro Op run at 200+ hours... but maybe I’m missing something? The NAM does it at 48 hours out. Ha.

It’s taking a beating. Quad side in the best shape for sure. That aspect helps a lot. South facing Spruce is getting eviscerated. Gondola is holding in there but as usual is somewhere between the other two. Gondolier might actually be in better shape that Perry Merrill which is different. Natural snow is going real fast at 1500ft and anything south facing on the dial.

The crowds have left this week up here. Been a long time since the Gondola and Quad were ski on with the reduced uphill capacity. The tourists don’t like the summer skiing but the locals act like they just took MDMA with some sunshine and warmth.

Feels like summer up here. MVL at 70/50 is like late June climo, lol. Picnic tables have set a record high for the day so far at the Mansfield COOP.

Yeah that's how Killington gets to Memorial Day weekend. Maybe some walking required or turfing. Open in the East is a pretty liberal/generous definition... many of us will hike 2,000 vertical feet to ski a ribbon in the spring. It won't be pretty but stuff can last.