powderfreak

Regarding the radar, I was actually surprised how low the radar beam can sample in Phin’s area for being so far away from the radar site. Here just east of Mansfield, my place is only 21 miles from the radar site in BTV and the ski area shows up at 17 miles away. However due to the 4,000ft terrain, the lowest usable beam is the 2.4 degree scan... and RadarScope says that’s generally sampling the sky between 5-6,000ft here. I noticed without any big terrain locally near the GYX radar site, that you can get great coverage with the 0.5 degree scan (that one is completely useless out of BTV though). So despite Phin’s area being a long 62 miles away from the radar site, it’s still sampling that same 5-6000ft level around him. That blew my mind for some reason... that being so far away from the radar, that area of NNH is getting sampled at a similar height to the first usable scan height in our area, three times closer to the radar site. But for sure there’s still plenty of low level precipitation generating... or heavier that radar shows. I just found it interesting in terms of beam heights how similar our areas are despite the different distance from the radar sites. Alex’s area looks to get blocked the most, as MWN is almost on a direct line between him and GYX.

It’s so widely used that it makes sense to try and get some tax dollars out of it. Just to clarify (I know what you meant though), recreational marijuana has been legal since 2018... but this new bill is to permit recreational sales (starting in 2022).

Just pretend to be leaf peeping. They barely know what state they are in, and it seems they all just got their drivers licenses before coming, not a COVID test . Three-way stop signs are very tricky to navigate.

Probably the ones standing are the tough ones? Around here it’s the white pines that come down in big numbers lately. One fell across Mountain Road last night up here taking power lines with it. Big sucker they were still cutting up this morning.

Ha nice, that’s exactly what I saw earlier. Flakes lasted about a minute as the ridge line took that hazy white look that’s a tell-tale of snow/virga.... finally hit the surface and was over in a minute lol. But it wasn’t rain, puts a little hop in your step. Next check mark is like legit under 5 mile vis snow showers.

Ha, none taken. I actually did that, literally. Stowe used to have the “Great 48” and it was only 48 trails, top-to-bottom. One of the very first tasks I had when I started in 2008 was to change the trail map to more accurately represent the mountain in terms of open terrain, and increase our trail count for marketing (Bolton Valley had like 60 trails I think? Stowe was the smallest mountain in Vermont per trail count with only 48, lol). Aside from marketing, a big issue was if you ski here, you’d know we really had “48 partially open trails.” There'd be times when literally almost every trail was “partially open” which confused the hell out of people...because only in mid-season snowpack with good conditions would many of the trails be fully open top-to-bottom. Now Ski Patrol had them internally sort of hacked up into different trails anyway in their lingo, because you have to when describing stuff over the radio (like they already named things upper/lower etc). An injured skier would call and the nearest trail sign says Lord and I have a broken leg. Well that’s a couple miles and 2,000 vertical feet of possibilities. Now they say the nearest sign says “Lower Lord” so patrol can quickly know where they are. So I worked with the Patrol director and others to break up the trails into how the mountain skied, what our normal closures are, access points to trails, etc. So now Starr and Lower Starr can be marked on the report as open, and Upper Starr (steep rocky headwall) can be marked as closed. I do think that’s better for communicating rather than saying “Starr is partially open.” Sometimes only Lower Starr is open from Shiftrs Shot, too. So you’d see Starr is partially open before 2008 on the report but have no idea what “part” was actually open. Marketing got a great trail count boost and it’s much more functional for figuring out what’s actually open and serves as easier to communicate with ski patrol and the public.

Mangled flurries at 1500ft now. Really dry air, evap cooling is doing it’s thing to get flurries down this low. Radar showing some showers popping up now along the Spine. Heard Bolton Valley at 2100ft had some -SN move through, too. Just enough moisture to squeeze out some light flurries as it evaporates and dries up on it's way down.

Driveway to the family’s place in Woodstock, CT.

Some light rime icing up high this morning.... 29F with a wind chill of 15F at the top of the Gondola.

We soggy ground.

I can’t believe the hail off the metal roof at the Gondola is still here this morning, 14 hours later. There’s several piles of it around the building lol.

Wow, ended up with 1.04” total water from the last 24 hours. Sneaky soaker as Phin called it. 31F at top of the Gondola this morning, too.

Heavy squall style weather. Wind and sideways rain in these bursts.

I think rime icing is a good possibility in the northern mountains instead of snow showers. Models have high RH trapped under 5-6k feet, but rapidly dropping to 40% above 6kft. Drying aloft in the colder profile won’t facilitate cloud ice crystal formation very well. Super-cooled droplets though could find ease sticking to the kummholz.

Past peak view from the office... uniform color mixed with bare trees. Taken today, but before the highest winds and rain/hail.

Props for the solid call dude. All morning on here you were banging the high wind stuff. Even clearly said take the over on those weenie wind maps that Whinemister posted, which is rare to hear from a met regarding those products. But high-end official ASOS gusts from ALB to BOS after this morning's posts.... you take the W today on the board. Cap tip.

And nope. It is pouring again. Every time I think it’s done another round pops up over Mansfield and rolls into town.

0.76” looks like it’ll do it here. MVL ASOS has leaves clogging the rain gauge, only 0.03” there today despite several rounds of 1.75sm visibility rain .

From a co-worker still up at the base area. The only time of year anything white will accumulate on the heated walkways...before they turn them on lol.

Down to 47F after that squall in the valley.

Not bad for ORH.

That area doesn’t get big wind events either... They haven’t really been naturally pruned as much as eastern New England or CT in recent years. Gusts of 60-70mph will take a lot down around the Capital District. That ALB ob is hard to beat for that area.

The worst winds here are with the line hitting us now. Gusting to 40mph and pea sized hail. Death blow for any remaining foliage.

Small hail in Stowe... peas. Winds probably gusting to 40mph. Wouldn’t call it severe but a strong storm for sure.

My dad near Albany just called, said that was probably the worst thunderstorm he can remember in decades. Obviously no power, trees and limbs down in the streets... he said the upstairs windows and side of house were covered in leaves and pine needles. We’ll see how long the power is out in the Albany area.