J.Spin

I’m passing along a few images from this weekend’s skiing at Stowe – some great April skiing!

Good point PF, I guess we’ll have to start using that elevation handicap/correction factor. It runs right around 20% per 500 feet, so corrected to 1,500’ that puts the total here at 234.1”, which is definitely a decent season. I seem to recall Kevin talking about adding another element to his page – was it liquid?

I think a conspicuous absence we should note from the top of the Vermont list is Underhill 4.4 NNE, which I believe has surpassed 200” of snowfall in multiple seasons and might have the highest snowfall average of any CoCoRaHS station in the state. It’s down there in the 10th spot with only 143.1” of snow (see table below). They’ve had 205 daily reports since October 1st, so missing data doesn’t appear to be an issue. I’d almost think there was a change in collection interval or something, but Bolton Valley only recorded 225” of snow this season and Stowe Mountain Resort only recorded 264”. Those are both areas with 300”+ annual snowfall averages from what I’ve seen, so those are both quite low. Sugarbush has only recorded 180” of snowfall this season, which is also incredibly low. Farther north, Smugg’s recorded 300” of snow, and Jay Peak has recorded 378”, which both seem closer to average, so I’m not quite sure how that all came about. Snowfall was roughly average here at our site with 167.2” according to my records, but something was definitely lacking along the western slopes and higher elevations of the spine in this area. I’m still sort of surprised that we pulled out an OK snowfall season at our site based on what went on around us, so something must have helped us relative to those Underhill, Bolton, and Stowe numbers. We certainly had some upslope snows this season, although it seemed to be a bit below average, or else I’d expect Bolton Valley and Underhill to have done better. Clearly there were numerous storms that were focused down south based on the SVT numbers and the well above average numbers in parts of SNE, but I figured you’d have some ideas on why some of the local snowfall numbers in our area were so low.

There are other things to do on the snow such as hiking, sledding, snowshoeing etc. The real deal is, unless one lives far enough south to remove the season transitions all together (at which point you risk losing part of summer to excessive heat and/or humidity), you’re going to get that period of “meh” at some point. Maybe it’s May, maybe it’s April, maybe it’s March, Maybe it’s February because you’re far enough south that the heart of winter is pretty much an extended period of quasi-winter “meh” to begin with. My parents have a winter place in northern Florida and essentially pay for it in January or thereabouts with brown grass, occasional frosts and somewhat “meh” temperatures. My Dad wants to get a place farther south so he can avoid dealing with that stretch. So aside from a few special places in the country (maybe spots with climates like San Diego, etc.) you’re going to have one or more periods of blah, or even downright annoying weather, and one way around dealing with that is to do what mreaves describes and actually change location temporarily. Other approaches are possible though depending on local geography. Mountains aren’t the only example, but they’re one way to do it. The effects that mountains give you can be quite dramatic, easily providing a couple of extra climate zones, or more, depending on the mountain range. To some degree they let you pick and choose your climate on any given day. New Englanders have actually been making use of this strategy since at least the 19th century, in the form of mountain top hotels and mountain resorts etc. They’ve sort of fallen out of fashion as of late because now we know everyone prefers excessive heat and humidity all summer long, but there are probably a few people that still sneak away and don’t tell anyone. Going to the coast is sort of the same strategy as the mountains, but it’s not really practical on the cold weather side of things.

Yeah, alpine areas around here were blindingly white right after the recent snows. As you mentioned, it’s a combination of the albedo of freshly fallen snow and late April sun angle. It makes for some amazing scenery due to the incredible contrast. Here’s a shot on our way to Stowe yesterday to add to the recent collection in the thread:

That’s why you just keep skiing right through May, and when you wake up from the dream in June, the snow has mostly melted and Mother Nature says the warm season is pretty much good to go.

Yeah, the turns were great today – I’m passing along a few images from our tour at Bolton Valley.

Awesome stuff PF, I had just grabbed the co-op report when I thought to check, and saw that you’d just posted the depth plot. What a crazy plot this year with that double 100” hump!

I saw that there was additional snow in the forecast for tonight, and just noticed that it’s started up again here. You can see some moisture moving in on the radar:

Event totals: 4.2” Snow/0.50” L.E. Details from the 6:00 P.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 0.3 inches New Liquid: 0.03 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 10.0 Snow Density: 10.0% H2O Temperature: 37.4 F Sky: Flurries Snow at the stake: 3.0 inches

Yeah, I was going to comment on your previous post about something up near an inch of liquid going into the mountain snowpack – sounds about right based on close to a half inch of L.E. down at the house. I’d say there was just about an inch of L.E. up high at Bolton based on the way the snow skied; it was a great resurfacing. Indeed every inch of L.E. in the snowpack helps to keep the local turns viable for that much longer.

I was up for a Bolton Valley ski tour in the mid-morning period with my wife and at that point we found new snow accumulations of 5-6” at 2,000’ and 10-11” at 3,000’ – it was still snowing of course, so it sounds like another inch or two has been tacked on at this point. The turns were fantastic – medium to moderately dense midwinter powder covering everything, temperatures near 30 F, and an almost fully untracked resort to ski. Wind effects were pretty minimal on much of the mountain so it really was a dense, velvety resurfacing that skied like a dream. It’s definitely a good time to get out there and enjoy those uncrowded slopes with all this new snow.

Event totals: 3.9” Snow/0.47” L.E. Details from the 12:00 P.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 0.6 inches New Liquid: 0.06 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 10.0 Snow Density: 10.0% H2O Temperature: 35.6 F Sky: Light Snow (1-2 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 3.5 inches

Event totals: 3.3” Snow/0.41” L.E. Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 1.7 inches New Liquid: 0.19 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 8.9 Snow Density: 11.2% H2O Temperature: 31.5 F Sky: Light Snow (1-4 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 3.5 inches

Event totals: 1.6” Snow/0.22” L.E. Details from the 11:00 P.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 1.6 inches New Liquid: 0.22 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 7.3 Snow Density: 13.8% H2O Temperature: 33.1 F Sky: Snow (2-4 mm flakes) Snow at the stake: 2.5 inches