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NNE Autumn 2013 Thread


MaineJayhawk

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from NWS (BTV Airport had 0.3", which is where the WFO is):

VERMONT...CALEDONIA COUNTY...   4 WSW GROTON           0.5   600 AM 11/12  COCORAHS   ENE HARDWICK           0.3   500 AM 11/12  COCORAHS...CHITTENDEN COUNTY...   1 NE SOUTH BURLINGTO   0.3   621 AM 11/12  NWS OFFICE...ORLEANS COUNTY...   HOLLAND                1.0   618 AM 11/12  BROADCAST MEDIA...WASHINGTON COUNTY...   EAST BARRE             2.0   619 AM 11/12  BROADCAST MEDIA   2 WNW WORCESTER        0.5   620 AM 11/12  CO-OP OBSERVER
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3-4" new on mansfield. Totals at max - mininmally wind drifted locations - prob. 18(ish).  Snow's a bit wind affected. Super supportive snow. Not blower. Maybe 8-10% type stuff. (should this be in the ski thread?).  Actually yesterday saw a few shooting cracks in the new snow. Today saw some surface slabs. Nothing serious but in steeper terrain with significant windloading the ramp up in the winds would have certainly created a decent slab that prob. wasn't bonded well.  

 

Looks another 1-2 tonight? Maybe a slight bit more with super cold temps. 700mbRH isn't great but there is saturation from 900 to about 850 so at least we'll get some squalls and continued snow flurries.  

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3-4" new on mansfield. Totals at max - mininmally wind drifted locations - prob. 18(ish). Snow's a bit wind affected. Super supportive snow. Not blower. Maybe 8-10% type stuff. (should this be in the ski thread?). Actually yesterday saw a few shooting cracks in the new snow. Today saw some surface slabs. Nothing serious but in steeper terrain with significant windloading the ramp up in the winds would have certainly created a decent slab that prob. wasn't bonded well.

Looks another 1-2 tonight? Maybe a slight bit more with super cold temps. 700mbRH isn't great but there is saturation from 900 to about 850 so at least we'll get some squalls and continued snow flurries.

I undercut your report and went 2-3" new snow last night...21" since Friday morning, which works with general depths in the vicinity of 18" above 3000ft.

7" at 1500ft during that same time of 21" at the summit.

I had another dusting on my car up there after just an hour...steady high ratio flakes continue to sit and fall up in the basin there of the Notch.

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I undercut your report and went 2-3" new snow last night...21" since Friday morning, which works with general depths in the vicinity of 18" above 3000ft.

7" at 1500ft during that same time of 21" at the summit.

I had another dusting on my car up there after just an hour...steady high ratio flakes continue to sit and fall up in the basin there of the Notch.

 

3 would be the number we all agree on. Fine with me.

I's totally agree with 18-20 since Sunday. Felt about right.

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steady light snow at Mansfield midday.  Mid mountain was probably 12-14", wind buffed/loaded.  Never sunk in much around the skin track.  Snowed lightly (few bouts of moderate) from 11am to 1pm.  Makes me wonder why this is still an Autumn thread.  Feels like early December around here right now. 

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steady light snow at Mansfield midday.  Mid mountain was probably 12-14", wind buffed/loaded.  Never sunk in much around the skin track.  Snowed lightly (few bouts of moderate) from 11am to 1pm.  Makes me wonder why this is still an Autumn thread.  Feels like early December around here right now. 

 

Which skin track did you follow?

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Perry. Stopped at Waterfall for descent: early season + legs = not working all that well. Snow was best mid-mountain for me- not quite as grabby. Were you there?

What's a little crazy is to see all these pics and hear reports of deep snow, mid-winter and all that jazz across the central/northern Greens....then I see photos and web cams from places in the Whites like Loon, and like Sunday River in ME, and it looks completely different. Grass showing through a dusting of snow with snow guns blowing away...looks like early November usually does.

The Greens may not be nearly as picturesque or as grand a range as spots like the Adirondacks and White, but whoever started putting ski areas on that Spine knew one thing: it snows. A lot.

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Waterbury event totals: 1.0” Snow/0.10” L.E.

 

I’d seen the precipitation approaching the area last night around 10:00 P.M., but it didn’t seem all that impressive on radar, and with a temperature around 40 F, I figured it would take a while before any snow would come out of it.  At least that’s the impression I had, until about a half hour later when I saw eyewall’s post about accumulation in Winooski.  I decided to head downstairs and have a look out back, and low and behold it was dumping snow.  The temperature was also down near the freezing mark, so that change came in quite fast.  My last evening check on the weather was around midnight, at which point the snowboard had picked up 0.8” of accumulation, and the precipitation was moderate snow comprised of flakes in the 3-10 mm range.

 

This morning at observations time I found 1.0” on the snowboard comprised of 0.09” of liquid, and I was able to get 0.10” of liquid equivalent out of the rain gauge, so there was presumably a touch of liquid precipitation prior to the changeover to snow.

 

Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations:

 

New Snow: 1.0 inches

New Liquid: 0.09 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 11.1

Snow Density: 9.0% H2O

Temperature: 25.2 F

Sky: Light Snow/Flurries

Snow at the stake: 1.0 inches

 

The snowy pictures that Powderfreak sent from Mansfield yesterday looked fantastic, and with the potential for another few inches on top of that, I headed out to the mountain for an early tour.  Temperatures were generally in the mid 20s F through the mountain valleys this morning, and there were somewhat diminished accumulations in the Waterbury Center and Colbyville areas relative to what I found at the house and in Stowe.  There were no issues with the roads until I started climbing up toward the mountain around 1,000’, and above that I found enough packed ice and snow that it warranted a bit more cautious driving.  At the Midway Parking Lot (1,600’), the temperature was 20 F and there was light snow falling.

 

Since my last outings a couple of weeks ago focused on the Gondola side of Mansfield, I decided to mix it up this time and took the well established skin track that headed up Nosedive.  It was well packed, and made all the sweeter by the fact that for much of the ascent there was a parallel boot pack available for anyone hiking without skins.  The snowpack increased very quickly with elevation on the bottom half of the mountain, and I found the following depths during my ascent:

 

1,600’: 4-6”

2,000’: 8-10”

2,500’+: 12-18”

 

Once you get to ~2,500’, you’re already well into the deep stuff, and the gains in snow depth aren’t huge beyond that.  I had time to stop in at the fabled Mt. Mansfield Stake at ~3,700’, and here’s what the stake had to say:

 

12NOV13A.jpg

 

The lowest I think anyone could read from that would be 17”, but it’s of course a bit tricky with the way the snow slopes in from around the tree.  I generally found 18-19” there when I probed on the edge of the Toll Road itself, so that’s in fairly good agreement with what was at the stake:

 

12NOV13B.jpg

 

It’s really a nice sheltered area up there, and since the snow isn’t perturbed by wind, you can definitely get a sense for where the snow stands with respect to quality.  Big, dendritic flakes were falling while I was there switching over for the descent, and snow actually fell the entire time I was at the mountain, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be some additional accumulation to report.

 

To finish off this snow update there’s still the pièce de résistance for the day… the descent.  While ascending Nosedive, it was clear that there had been a huge bolus of snow dropped above 2,500’, so coverage wasn’t going to be an issue.  Temperatures were certainly not in question either, since it must have been somewhere in the teens F.  That left the aspects of snow density and the effects of the wind, and based on the turns I was seeing by people descending Nosedive, it looked like the skiing was going to be fine, even if not sublime.  There had definitely been some wind on Nosedive that appeared to have packed out the snow a bit.  With that in mind, I decided to roll the dice and check out another descent route - I headed over toward Hayride.

 

I hadn’t thought that today’s skiing was going to be anywhere near the quality of what we had last November on the 30th, but after a few turns on Hayride I found that it was certainly in the same league.  With that combination of denser snow below and now a few inches of lighter stuff on top, if the wind hasn’t gotten to it the turns are pretty sweet:

 

12NOV13C.jpg

 

I opted for regular skis as opposed to rock skis, and there’s plenty of coverage for going that route.  With 115 mm underfoot and judicious line choice, I think I touched down twice on something other than snow on the entire descent.  Anyway, especially with addition of today’s colder, drier snow, there’s definitely some decent powder out there.

 

Checking on the web cam at the house, I can see that we’ve picked up another couple of tenths of an inch of snow with today’s light stuff that’s continued to fall.

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Flurries only stopped here about 40 minutes ago. They didn't add up to anything more than we had last night. When I had  a break from work I drove over to Jericho which had about 1 inch to maybe 2 on the coldest surfaces. This evening as the sun goes down there is still a dusting on roof tops and patches of white in the grass here in Winooski. When I got a look at the mountains to the east it was clear there were still snow showers ongoing there. Now we should fall off into the teens tonight. We will torch next week but I would say we could call it winter now :)

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Nice report JSpin! I wasn't able to make any turns today, but from the Ops building it certainly snowed all day and looked like there may be some additional light accumulations to report tomorrow. The quality of the snow right now is awesome though...you'll very rarely get to ski these trails in this condition, haha.

We've had constant flurries at home the past few hours, but it would be a stretch to even say its a tenth of additional, lol. Mountain still obscured so in sure it's still snowing there as well.

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No snow with the front here, but at least it's cold. 28/14 right now and my 6" soil temp should crack into the 30s for the first time tomorrow morning.

I was wondering about ground temps...how long would it take at these temps (say teens at night, near 32F during the day) to freeze the ground?

What's funny to me is that there's a good deal of snow on the mountain but the ground isn't frozen, it's actually quite soft in a lot of places. The snow is probably even rotting from below in places, especially lower down.

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I was wondering about ground temps...how long would it take at these temps (say teens at night, near 32F during the day) to freeze the ground?

What's funny to me is that there's a good deal of snow on the mountain but the ground isn't frozen, it's actually quite soft in a lot of places. The snow is probably even rotting from below in places, especially lower down.

 

 

That early snowpack is a good way to insulate the ground from freezing.

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