J.Spin

After checking out the accumulations on the various mountain webcams this morning, I decided to head to Mt. Mansfield for a ski tour. I hadn’t seen any obvious differences in accumulations at the various resorts from the webcams, so I opted for Stowe because they seemed to have the most substantial existing snowpack right down to the base elevations. Temperatures were in the upper 30s F in the mountain valleys, and mid-30s F at the resort base. By the time I got out on my tour, the snow level was certainly rising relative to its lowest point overnight or this morning when there were more optimal temperatures and snowfall rates. New snow accumulations certainly varied depending on the surface, with the best accumulations and retention were found atop the existing snowpack. I headed up in the North Slope area, and continued past the Fourrunner Quad Summit and up the Toll Road past the Mt. Mansfield Stake to the Mansfield Summit Station at around 3,850’. Precipitation was snow at all elevations on my ascent, and it was fairly light for the most part until I got to the Summit Station along the Mansfield ridgeline. While I was hanging out there refueling and changing over for the descent, the intensity of the snowfall ramped up somewhat, with lots of tiny flakes at first. Eventually though, the snowfall picked up to a pounding of much larger flakes. There was definitely a lot of liquid coming out of the sky at that point, and my Gore-Tex was getting a workout. The big jump in accumulations really seemed to happen between 2,000’ and 3,000’. Above 3,000’ I didn’t really see too much with respect to additional accumulation, so presumably temperatures were sufficient down to 3,000’ to maximize the snow from the available moisture right from the get go yesterday. Here’s the elevation profile for the accumulations I found this morning: 500’: 0” 1,000’: 0” 1,300’: T 1,500’: ½” 2,000’: 1” 2,300’: 3-4” 2,500’: 5” 2,700’: 6” 3,000’: 7-8” 3,500’: 8” 3,850’: 8” The amount of dense snow up high meant that you had plenty of cushion for some nice powder turns. Of course, the density also meant that the snow was Sierra Cement/Cascade Concrete and you had your work cut out for you with respect to getting those powder turns. It is mid-May though, so even dense powder turns this time of year are always a treat. I’ve added some shots from today’s tour below:

Yeah, I checked when I saw your post and we certainly had some mixing down here in the valley bottom. Once we got down into the mid-30s F with that level of precipitation intensity it was kind of hard not to. There’s no accumulation down here this morning, but we picked up 0.58” of liquid and I put down a trace of frozen to account for the mix. I just checked the mountains though, and you can see fresh accumulations all the way down to the base at the local resorts via the Stowe webcams, Sugarbush webcams, MRG webcams, and Bolton webcam.

Well, that’s some of the base for any new snow that might fall with this next event.

That three feel of accumulation wasn’t at valley level, it was well up in elevation. I don’t recall hearing much about damage during that event, certainly around here in VT. On Mt. Mansfield the snow line was around 2,100’ when I was there. Here’s the accumulation profile with respect to elevation that I found: 1,600’: 0” 1,800’: Trace 2,100’: 1” 2,200’: 2” 2,500’: 4” 2,600’: 5” 3,000’: 8” 3,300’: 10” – 12”-15” It’s possible that they had some tree issues over in the Adirondacks, but above 2,500’ or so, and certainly above 3,000’, the accumulations are almost irrelevant with respect to the trees – at any time of year. The trees are essentially all evergreens that are built to take on any sort of snowfall at any time of year without issues.

Checking on this afternoon’s forecast discussion from the BTV NWS, they’re suggesting 4-6” tonight along the ridgelines, with some additional accumulations tomorrow. The Mansfield point forecast suggests 6-10” through Wednesday. There’s also a Winter Weather Advisory up in NNH for this upcoming event. Some related text and images are below: AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Burlington VT 331 PM EDT Mon May 13 2019 .NEAR TERM /THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT/... As of 331 PM EDT Monday...While a few showers are possible this afternoon across Vermont, it won`t be until later this evening when better deep layer moisture associated with the developing coastal low will spread precip across the remainder of the forecast area. The forecast for tonight then features widespread rain in the valleys, but cooler air working in aloft from the east will lower snow levels down towards 1500 feet by Tuesday morning supporting a rain/snow mix mid-slope and all snow across the high peaks. Feel that 1500-2500 feet might see a dusting to an inch of accumulation, while the ridgetops 4-6" looks good.

May snow is actually quite common – after poking around in my archives a bit, it looks like notable accumulations of May snow probably happen (on average) every year if one considers the entire Northeast. I just checked my archives, and it looks like substantial (6”+) May snow here in the Northern Greens is at least an every other year occurrence on average. Since 2010 I’ve got the following reports in my records: Jay Peak 09MAY2010 (6”+) Bolton Valley 10MAY2010 (8”+) Stowe 06MAY2011 (10”) Stowe 26MAY2013 (15”) Stowe 16MAY2016 (8”) If we were to get something substantial out of this potential upcoming event, that would be at least five significant May snowstorms in the past decade. For the Northeast in general, I’m sure the occurrence is more than every other year, especially with the Presidentials in the mix. I skied Mt. Washington on May 16th the season before last, and they’d just had almost three feet of snow. I don’t think the Greens had much with that event, as they were either out of the moisture/dynamics of the snow levels were just a bit too high. Since the list above obviously wouldn’t include any May snowstorms in the Northern Greens that I missed and didn’t make a report on, or any events that hit other parts of the Northeast where the Central/Northern Greens weren’t quite in on the substantial snows, it’s definitely averaging more than once every other year. Today’s event was a perfect example, with Mt. Snow getting some substantial snow. If that happened a bit closer to home there would have been a good chance I’d get out for a tour in the fresh snow, but heading that far south is a bit more of a commitment, especially on such short notice.

Indeed, that looks nice – there are plenty of skiable lines throughout the resort. Although they don’t get the snowfall numbers that the Northern Greens do, I think the temperature regime/snow retention is similar in the Sunday River/Sugarloaf region. Sugarloaf seems to have some of the best spring snow retention anywhere in NNE. I don’t think Wildcat does quite as well as Sugarloaf, and somehow I get the impression that Cannon is notably worse with snow retention vs. those others despite being at fairly high elevation up there in the mountains of New Hampshire.

From my office the other day I saw that there was quite a bit of white still visible on the slopes of Bolton Valley, so I headed up for a ski tour on Thursday and can pass along the beta on the snowpack. The first signs of snow along the Bolton Valley Access Road, are at 1,500’ near the base of the Timberline area, and there are even skiable lines farther up on Timberline. Up at the main mountain, continuous snowpack starts right at the base at around 2,100’. Multiple trails on the upper mountain have skiable snow, and the Bear Run/Sprig O’ Pine area on the lower mountain has quite solid coverage. Descending from up near 3,000’ on Spillway, I was able to ski almost continuous snow to the main base. There were a few small breaks in the snowpack, but nothing that required taking off my skis. The level of coverage they have right now wouldn’t be too surprising on the eastern slopes of the Greens this time of year, but that’s quite impressive for the western slopes. I’m not sure if it was the hearty snowpack we had this winter, the amount of snow the resort made, the lack of any hot spells this spring, or a combination of these factors, but Bolton definitely has a solid amount of snow on the ground for this far into May. A few shots from the tour:

We should probably give PF a hard time for starting the warm season thread a bit too soon. Cold/snow/ski season is essentially October through May – the beautiful image in his opening post clearly speaks to that. Those “other” four months of the year are the warm season around here – although you never know with June and September… and even August, especially later August can start the slide some years. I guess that leaves July. …and there’s an old saying somewhere along those lines.

The new format looks great Kevin – can’t wait to see what it looks like when it all comes together.

Thanks Kevin, as always, we appreciate this great resource you’ve put together. I just checked, and things seem to be working on my end. We’re into October now, which is typically our first month for accumulating snow (seems to be close to 70% of seasons based on my data), so hopefully it won’t be too long before we’ll have something to put in the table.