powderfreak

Some upslope refresh coming? Two different waves could bring some appreciable QPF. GFS not biting but EURO/GGEM/NAM seem decent. EURO GGEM

Your area lost like 4-6" in a day per CoCoRAHS across SNE and the fluff bomb to the north was the opposite of a mature snowpack. That one had much higher dews and heavy rainfall too.

Down at 750ft in the village we never had a big pack (kept maxing out around 18-20") but still holding onto 10-12" on average. It is getting towards mid-March down here in the valley so without refreshes, it usually does start decreasing/fighting a losing battle this time of year. Up at 1,500ft and above along the spine there a few miles west will hold 18-20"+. The one thing I noticed this evening on the dog walk was how variable the temperature was. If the wind went calm, it felt chilly and cooled off very fast...like the snow/ice was giving off a refrigerated feeling. When the wind would blow though, it was hot. Any breeze led to temperatures that did not jive with the winter scene. It was in the upper 50s when this photo was taken, though it seems like it would look similar if it was 20F. What's left of the snowpack down here is going to freeze solid come the weekend and should last another 10 days at least given the current models.

The victim. When was the last time you saw 15 inches disappear in a day without rainfall? Even 10 inches?

It's pretty much physically impossible to lose 15" of mature snowpack in a day, without rain. Even with 3" of rain and dews of 60F I think it would be hard to do. Maybe fresh snow after a storm but not a mature pack. I remember March 2012 when we had highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s for several days in a row the mountains would lose 6-8" a day. Though that one is hard to compare as we had just gotten a 36 inch fluff bomb of an upslope event (36" in 36 hours) and that fluff went real fast in those temps and skews it a bit.

You’ll be trying to bring 60+ dew points to Montreal and Caribou in like 3 weeks. When you change to warm season mode, you change fast. I find it hard to believe if he lost any more than 3-6” as I don’t know if we lost 3-4” here today and it was just as warm and sunny.

Now that he’s over winter and onto spring he will try really hard to melt everyone’s snow... he’s just fishing. Looks maybe 3-6” different, if that, from the prior day’s photo.

Definitely not feeling any worry about melting out anytime soon. Stowe has arguably the best snow preservation being on Mansfield’s east slope where it only gets direct solar in the morning. The big tell at Stowe is if that north wall of the Notch (steep and facing south) still has 100% cover that the ski terrain on Mansfield isn’t even close to thinking about low tide. In my photo from earlier that’s the wall on the furthest right side of the photo at the edge of the shot. That north wall will melt out to 3,000ft in the spring sun before even 1500ft where the FourRunner Quad and Gondola are. We can often ski glades to the base area still while staring across at a snow free hillside. Even March 2012, 5 days of 70s with lows in the 50s didn’t end it.

Yeah this is spot on. The snow needs to get rained on or melt, refreeze, and then warm up again to get the corn cycle. Can't go from cold snowpack to hot like we just did because the snow gets super sticky and slow (as is happening today on a lot of the natural snow terrain). Those powder dendrites that were forming the layer of powder on top, just got wet and when those flakes get wet those big arms of the crystals act like a suction cup on your ski bases. Need to change the crystal into granular first, then warm it up. The past two days have had the best skiing on the man-made snow trails that are groomed and heavily skied as they have lost most of their powder qualities through the daily grinding. That stuff is the closest to granular snow and has skied so much better than the natural snow trails. The difference at Stowe between like Nosedive/Hayride vs. Starr and Goat is obvious when you ski them. From mid-mtn on down, the snow on Starr and Goat want to rip you out of your skis it's so slow and sticky...even with a fresh wax. We were joking it felt like your boot liners would just come right out of the shell with your feet attached. The man-made snow runs and heavily groomed are by far the best right now. After this though, we should refreeze and if we do not get any more snowfall the corn will be ripe the next time it warms up. But as soon as it snows, it resets itself and needs to go through the transformation again.

This sounds pretty accurate.

70F at ORH... wow that’s fairly impressive.

What a day.

59F and mostly sunny at MVL! Wow, what a day. 48F at MMNV1 Picnic Tables. Was not expecting full sunshine with these temps aloft... records going to fall. Northern Greens and Northern Adirondacks some of the warmest around. Lake Champlain is still so cold you can see it cooling the readings in the Champlain Valley.

Mild morning in the mountains. 34F down in town and stuff seems frozen again, but up higher it’s in the 40s straight to the summits. Also getting some light rain. Strong SW upslope flow standing wave wringing out some precip in the northern mountains and east slopes.

35F and the snowpack is frozen again from within. The core snowpack temp is still cold and it started firming up (slick) at even 40 degrees earlier this evening. That cold core temperature of the pack will lock this snow up tight even if temperatures fail to show a solid freeze. On the slopes, it'll be firm in the early morning regardless of temperatures. A crispy coat overnight.

You down to grass on the hill? I figured you had some cover around.

Only a couple iPhone snaps today... but that March sunshine is intoxicating. 50F at the base and 40F at the summit this afternoon. Very dry air and low dewpoints in the teens kept it from getting slushy. The steeps on Mansfield remained fairly dry and still chalky packed powder on upper elevations from Nosedive through Starr on the aspect dial. Just an overall fantastic day to be outside.

That evergreen wall you’ve got around the property has to help preservation this time of year.

As usual, snowmelt was fairly minimal even with temps over 50F because dews were in the teens. That 20-25% RH air doesn’t melt it all that fast. But looks like tomorrow the dews get into the 40s and *that* is what really accelerates it. “Will see a noticeable increase in moisture as we tap into western Gulf of Mexico sourced air overnight tonight. The increased moisture, coupled with some weak shortwaves rippling through the southwesterly flow, will support thickening and lowering of clouds as well as dewpoints rising noticeably overnight. Will also see persistent southerly/southwesterly winds 10-20 mph overnight as a low-level jet moves overhead. The clouds, continued warm air advection, and windy conditions overnight will result in very mild lows in the mid 30s to mid 40s. Not much change in the pattern for the daytime on Thursday, with cloudy, warm, and windy conditions persisting. Highs Thursday will be in the mid to upper 50s across much of the region, and even in the low 60s for portions of the southern Champlain Valley and southern Connecticut River Valley. Dewpoints will rise into the low to mid 40s, which will allow for fairly rapid snowmelt during the day along with the warm and windy conditions.”

55F off a low of 14F. Just a phenomenal day out there. Pretty sure I got a little sunburn on the slopes... blindingly bright. South facing slopes just taking the brunt of the sun torch. Just got home from skiing, took the dog for her first swim of the season in between the ice. She loved it, couldn’t get her out of the water. Its so dry outside that the dog was almost entirely dry just 15-20 minutes after swimming when we got home. Only her stomach was still wet. In the summer she’s wet for like 3 hours after swimming. Water Evaporating fast today. Septic tank spot melted out today, ha.

43F at 750ft and 33F at the picnic tables.

That was Monday. Clear this morning. Low of 14F to start the torch day.

There's a trail called Rimrock at Stowe that connects the Quad side with the Gondola side at 3,000 feet or so. It's under the whole ridge and just seems to have shadows a lot of the time. In the spring time when you are traversing across/down it for what seems like over a mile... the trick is to get into the shadow on the side and keep your bases flat to glide as best as possible. It's funny to see a trail with everyone gliding single file down the immediate edge. Whenever you get into the sunny spots the snow slows down dramatically. You definitely can feel it even on the scale of individual tree shadows. Evergreens giving that larger shadow. Nice observation.

More days of this coming as we head into spring. Maybe I have more seasonal affective vibe than I used to, as I notice sunny days in the spring make me feel like I took a party drug. Tomorrow should be a good one... partly to mostly sunny, 40s, and mountains buried in snow to enjoy.