powderfreak

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.

It's a volume over yield business. From what I've seen they generally know how to run a slick operation but we had it pretty dialed at Stowe as it was. The issues arise from just throwing a lot of people at the mountain every day. Skiing is now affordable for a LOT of people. For years people always complained about skiing being reserved for the 1% and wealthy elite. Now it's getting very affordable and people are like wait, we take it back. We want it to be too expensive and for the one percenters.

Yeah this is getting fairly impressive now. In February it wasn’t noteworthy and put trust in climo but man the next two days are going to be a bloodbath. Dews rising up near 50F with record high temps today. Record high is 53F on Mansfield (1987) and it’s already 46F at 6am. Tomorrow looks like we may hear our first thunder of the season too.

Of the CO ski areas I've hit, Beaver Creek's Grouse Mountain Express was one of the better expert lifts I've been on. The clientele generally doesn't seek out that terrain and the powder seemed to last forever. We were there just after a 10-inch storm and the lift was mostly empty, with around 2,000 vertical feet of wide open terrain available on an under-used high-speed quad.

Dew point up to 44F now, compared to 19F yesterday at this time. That 25F increase in dews is notable... the air doesn't have that immediate chill around sunset that was in place the last several days. The temperature isn't going to plummet immediately below freezing tonight.

That’s awesome. Waterbury Res pretty clear there and can see the mean snow line is up around 1,000-1,500ft. We just patchy now in the RT 100 corridor. Stowe’s just out of that shot to the North.

I still think we’ve got another warning event coming at some point. Mostly because I trust climo (maybe too much) and even if it’s April 14th, I think we still have one in the tank. At the very least spring cut-off season has led to some monster upslope events after a cutter or something as lows meander around NE of here.

Yeah it would be tough if your only option was weekends. Definitely didn’t see that 20% price drop coming. They are going to put the squeeze on. Even Wall Street didn’t know what to do with that news as people couldn’t figure out how it would lead to more revenue by slashing prices 20%. I think it’s also viewed as a credit from this season to retain people... sort of like what @bwt3650’s thought process is. Overall I still think it’s largely good for the industry as far as making skiing more accessible to more people. The overflow will land at the Indy ski areas (like @Angus) and drive revenue towards them while keeping a fresh supply of newbies coming into cheap passes. Also drives the entire market down though, which can be tough for some Indys.

Spring skiing. Mashed potatoes and corn. Great day of seeing friends and skiing with people I haven't caught up with all season.

What a stretch of high pressure with nary a cloud and very low moisture levels... the afternoon RH and diurnal ranges for 4-5 days? Already around freezing outside for the night. We are 50-50 melted out up here. We'll be taking a dip in the river before long, ha.

Just ridiculous air mass. Daytime maxes have been +25 while the mins have been like -2, ha. Last 4 days diurnal ranges have been: 41, 43, 48, and at least 46 today. Low of 22F this morning and high of 68F so far. Dew point is 14F for 12% RH. What a stretch of weather.

What a day on the hill. Might’ve been the most I’ve skied all season. Definitely the most roving cast of friends I’ve skied with. Lowest lift lines of the season too. This is why spring skiing is great.

NNE climo sensei J.Spin told them not to lose faith. Spring never moves in for good in March.

I want to clarify I don’t like high dews, but warm/hot and dry is growing on me each year. I love this weather right now. But hiking in dews during the summer and the bugs that come with muggy weather, pass. I want summer days hot and cool refreshing nights.

Tolland Hills upslope event. Like the difference between J.Spin and BTV. Those are fun events, cool stuff.

"We aim to improve 500mb scores to rival that of the fabled UKMET." NOAA says it will lead to better predictions of hurricanes and other extreme events, ocean waves and weather systems high in the atmosphere.

With those super low dew points, as expected the bottom dropped out as soon as the sun went down. It's already 30 degrees colder than this afternoon... atmosphere becomes a vacuum once the sun goes behind the Spine. It's almost like a cold front moved through, doors and windows slammed shut before the heat kicked on. Will be below freezing in not too long.

He’s still on the dry persistence forecast going on like three summers... the next 5 months will be “don’t be surprised if XYZ finds a way not to rain.” Suppressed, South Coast, far NW, only the Cape, etc everything leaning towards no rain for heart of SNE.