powderfreak

You might be able to make a few turns down the rotting snowmaking pile along the treeline on Standard below Crossover.

A drone shot by @_j_staff on instagram of the Stowe landslide that occurred in the Mount Mansfield state forest in the southwest side of town. Pretty good sized area of earth that decided to give way back in early June.

Yeah it would be hard to go with anything lower than A/A-. I'd save A+ for a similar winter but with a little more snow and less mixed events and/or rain, especially around the Xmas/New Years holiday period. To me it was frequent snows (active pattern) even if just 2-3" dustings mixed with several good warning level events (several 1"+ QPF snows) and an incredible snowpack season. My lawn was covered November 12th and that was it for grass until April. Even up here, that's hard to do without even one mid-winter melt out. I really got an appreciation for a big November though. The winter seems so much longer the winter season when you've already had 2-3 weeks of snow cover and winter weather by December 1st. So much different than waiting till like December 15-25 to get things rolling. Last year it even started in mid-October with well below normal temps and snowfall...like cold enough for light snow to accumulate during the day in October. I forget when I met up with Oceanstwx for a beer and all the SPC guys were in town from Oklahoma for the severe weather conference, but those SPC guys were going nuts because it was snowing and sticking in October. The winter just felt really long when you had it start solidly in October/early November and continue from there. By Christmas it had been 6 weeks of constant snow cover and a solid 8 weeks since it got cold and started snowing. I'll remember how much of a difference that makes in the overall "feel" of a winter.

Yeah here was my comparison of the stake in mid-winter depth and currently...I had sent them this and gave a report of the snow around the stake and I thought a trace amount would be the right call (which they already made that call too) due to no snow around/in front of the actual stake but then other areas with 1-2 foot deep patches. It is crazy how hard it is to melt that snow up there at 4,000ft. The Cliff Trail hiking trail from the top of the Gondola also has quite a bit of snow on it still, all the nooks and crannies filled in and packed hard from a windy, wet winter.

50F now after a high of 75F at MVL... this is the best weather of the season in terms of available sunshine.

The dog loved cooling off in every pile of snow we came across on our hike today. But c'mon, the weather doesn't get any better than this for outdoor recreation. 60s up high, 70s on the lower half of the hill, with low humidity, full sunshine and just enough breeze to keep the black flies moving. It's almost euphoric being that nice and comfortable for hiking.

BTV posted some good maps summarizing the wet May we experienced. Our area or axis looked to be the wet "winners" for precip. Definitely fits with what I remember...lots of bigger rain events. Not only was the rain consistent but there were at least 3 (maybe 4) separate events over 1" water...mixed in with lighter events. But look those totals... that's a large area of 6-9" totals through the heart of the forecast area.

After my trip, I will say if anyone gets to visit the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe, they are worth it. The "Transylvanian Alps" are pretty stunning. This is like a 4-5000 vertical foot rock wall, ranging from roughly 4,000ft elevation in the valley to 8-9,000ft at the ridgelines.

Wet day south of I-89...a solid soaking everywhere though.

Wet pattern continues... Another .4-.5" here in past 24 hours though just south of here was .6-.9". BTV has another .5-1.5" forecast overnight for the area. Should be over 10" in the past 36 days by morning. Including the cities of Lake Placid, Port Henry, Ticonderoga, Island Pond, Burlington, Johnson, Stowe, St. Johnsbury, Montpelier, Middlebury, Vergennes, Bradford, Randolph, Rutland, Springfield, White River Junction, Underhill, Bristol, Ripton, East Wallingford, and Killington 325 PM EDT Wed Jun 5 2019 ...Moderate to Locally Heavy Rainfall Tonight Could Lead to Localized Flooding... Widespread rainfall is expected across much of the northern Adirondacks, southern and central Vermont, and portions of the Northeast Kingdom tonight. An additional 1-2 inches of rain are expected between this evening and Thursday morning in these areas. Given the recent rainfall the area has received (some areas up to a half inch in the last 24 hours), the ground is already relatively saturated. As a result, the additional rainfall could cause rapid rises of small streams which may lead to areas of minor flooding and ponding of water on area roads.

20 acre landslide in the Cottonbrook area of Stowe. Over 9" of rain since May 1st. Impacting the popular recreation area off Nebraska Valley road. Cottonbrook Road closed. https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Major-landslide-damages-Mt-Mansfield-State-Forest-trail-510776551.html

I didn't hear any thunder last night but was surprised to find a healthy 1.25" in the gauge this morning. I didn't think it rained that hard. The local Stowe 0.2SW CoCoRAHS station in the lower village is at 7.75" on the month, should make 8" total by the time the month ends. This area from Stowe south to Waterbury and Duxbury, over to Cabot to the NE and Huntington to the SE has been in quite a wet zone lately.

Looks a lot different than it did a week ago. Huge melt in the last 7-10 days. I guess as you get further into May, the climate does get fairly inhospitable towards snow and ice.

What river/creek/brook/etc floods the park and ride? I know where the park and ride is off Stowe Street there but is it the waterway that follows RT 100 further north a bit across from Ben and Jerry's? I heard that thing was almost about to cross RT 100 there near Guptil Road (where the new traffic light when in) at like 7am this morning. Anyway, last night's rain almost doubled May's precipitation total here of ~5.75".

Holy crap that was some rain last night...more impressive rain event in a while obviously with these numbers. My stratus cracked over the winter and haven't gotten a new one but the half ass garden rain gauge says 2.25-2.5" but I'd estimate halfway between those values so 2.35-2.4" or so. The guy in the Stowe Lower Village had 2.53". J.Spin with 2.78" and even a 3"+ west slope of Camels Hump. Fresh tree in the river this morning, root ball and tiny green leaves so it was growing happily yesterday. No mas. Can also see some of the smaller creeks crossed RT 108 like by Topnotch Resort. It must've been mayhem in the river and feeder creeks at like 3am last night. Humid torrential rain and still high Mtn snowmelt... I think that was the final blow to skiing.  Now can finally say "Shut 'em Down" at Stowe.

It's working its way north... Newport, VT just cracked 60F while it's 80F here... same 750ft elevation just 20 miles north.

Nice Backedge. Looks beautiful down there. Bit more clouds up this way... the snow pack level is retreating up the slopes. Mountains still largely look like "stick season" though some light green is starting to head up to the lower slopes.

We've lucked out on the past two afternoons.

Yeah dropping in on those chutes above Bypass is pretty rugged. Takes a healthy pack to get through there. That's incredible. There will definitely still be a snowpack up there when the Toll Road opens for Memorial Day weekend. That 5 foot mark is historically hit in early to mid February, too. That scene in your photo could be like President's Weekend in a normal winter.

So that photo, J.Spin, looks like 5 feet? Yesterday's climate report shows 47". But there's no reading on this evening's climo report... wonder why? But there's no way a foot of snow fell either? Wonder if it's the angle of the camera there being high and looking down on it that gave it 47" yesterday?

I love this, dude! I mean that could be January with a 5-foot snowpack right there and fresh snow on everything. One of the best photos of the Stake set-up I've seen in a while.

Yeah we had wet non accumulating snow at 5am in Stowe when I got up. Driving up Mtn Road, like 1 out of every 5 cars had some white on them haha. First found snow accumulations on grass near the Toll Road base (as is often the case) at 1,200-1,300ft and maybe a half inch at 1,500ft. I drove to 1,800ft on Spruce and found about 1.5". Big snow gradient on the trees around 2,000ft.

A buddy posted this on social media from Sunday on Mansfield. The Toll Road cuts through the snowpack there on the upper reaches is still pretty deep!

Good upslope there on prolonged NE flow under a deform band. Air coming out of the flat Northern Champlain Valley ran into 5,000ft peaks and they got like 4" of QPF on the upper mountain. I remember some runs had the low moving further north turning winds to NW from NE, which would've favored VT but. It stalled too far south keeping NE winds going for a long time.

Whiteface in the Adirondacks had deformation delight and got 30-36" in that Memorial Day Weekend storm.