NNE Cold Season Thread 2025-2026

[J.Spin]

22 hours ago, tamarack said:

We'll hope 24-25 isn't repeated - early peak followed by meh.  On 12/5/24 we had 15" OG, the most for that date in our 27 winters.  We finished with well below snowfall and well below SDDs. 
That's what happens when the winter's 2 biggest snowstorms occur on 11/28-29 and 12/4-5.

That’s very interesting. I didn’t specifically recall those two snowstorms, so I went to my data, and I can see why – they were definitely not the 2 biggest snowstorms of the season over here at our site. They were both fairly small, and well down in the hierarchy of the 61 storms on the season – they weren’t part of the top 10, and they didn’t even make the top 20. The 11/28-29 snowstorm (potent low pressure tracking across southern New England) brought 2.3 inches of snow and ranked 29^th, and the 12/4-5 snowstorm (Clipper system racing eastward from southwestern Quebec to northern Maine) brought 2.9 inches of snow and ranked 23^rd. It’s always amazing how two NNE sites at similar latitudes can have such different winter regimes. The largest snowstorms of the season over here were in January and February, and in terms of the 24-25 winter as a whole, most skiers/mountain recreation types in this area would probably take a repeat if push came to shove. It wasn’t a perfect winter, with a fairly weak November in the lower elevations and a relatively slow period leading into the first half of December and again near the holidays, but with all the local ski resorts in the Northern Greens ultimately recording 350”+ of snow and Jay Peak hitting 475”, combined with a very stable period in midwinter without any huge rainstorms, it was a solid performer.

[tamarack]

2 hours ago, J.Spin said:

That’s very interesting. I didn’t specifically recall those two snowstorms, so I went to my data, and I can see why – they were definitely not the 2 biggest snowstorms of the season over here at our site. They were both fairly small, and well down in the hierarchy of the 61 storms on the season – they weren’t part of the top 10, and they didn’t even make the top 20. The 11/28-29 snowstorm (potent low pressure tracking across southern New England) brought 2.3 inches of snow and ranked 29^th, and the 12/4-5 snowstorm (Clipper system racing eastward from southwestern Quebec to northern Maine) brought 2.9 inches of snow and ranked 23^rd. It’s always amazing how two NNE sites at similar latitudes can have such different winter regimes. The largest snowstorms of the season over here were in January and February, and in terms of the 24-25 winter as a whole, most skiers/mountain recreation types in this area would probably take a repeat if push came to shove. It wasn’t a perfect winter, with a fairly weak November in the lower elevations and a relatively slow period leading into the first half of December and again near the holidays, but with all the local ski resorts in the Northern Greens ultimately recording 350”+ of snow and Jay Peak hitting 475”, combined with a very stable period in midwinter without any huge rainstorms, it was a solid performer.

We were in SNJ for the T-Day storm, had cold rain there.  Neighbor said, "about 8 inches" but the co-op 3 miles south and 90' higher reported 11".  He usually reports less than I do, in part to one-a-day measuring, so I may have underestimated.  Ratio was 5.6-to-1, a real branch breaker.  The Dec clipper grew up faster than expected - forecast was 3-6 and we had 9.3" from less than half the SWE of T-Day, 0.71" vs, 1.44".

[Boston Bulldog]

The developing pack is definitely taking a hit, but in high elevations it should survive the warm up. An extended upslope period is still showing up in guidance and it looks like there will be 2 (or 3) vorticity packets moving through the area through the end of next week to shake the upslope snowglobe. Hopefully soon we're talking about Froude numbers and critical flow, when those terms enter the conversation it's always a sign of a great pattern.

[WxWatcher007]

59 minutes ago, Boston Bulldog said:

The developing pack is definitely taking a hit, but in high elevations it should survive the warm up. An extended upslope period is still showing up in guidance and it looks like there will be 2 (or 3) vorticity packets moving through the area through the end of next week to shake the upslope snowglobe. Hopefully soon we're talking about Froude numbers and critical flow, when those terms enter the conversation it's always a sign of a great pattern.

Things I’ve never had to pay attention to. Looks wintry up at SLK for the next week. Just about perfect timing for my trip up. 

[Boston Bulldog]

11 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Things I’ve never had to pay attention to. Looks wintry up at SLK for the next week. Just about perfect timing for my trip up. 

https://www.weather.gov/btv/froude

The paper by BTV NWS linked above is a fantastic overview of the role the froude number plays in orographic precipitation. When cyclonic flow sets up over the mountains, flakes are flying somewhere