NNE Cold Season Thread 2026-27

[WxWatcher007]

A few days ago we thought that first flakes were possible as some of the guidance brought the coldest temperatures of the season into the region this week, and today some of the high peaks are seeing snow over in my WXW2 (SLK) neck of the woods as well as out east toward @powderfreak.

Last year was a heavenly first winter for me in the north country, where Saranac Lake saw its first measurable on Halloween, had snow falling on every major holiday through Easter, and saw its last flakes on May 8. I recorded 154.9" of snow on just one double digit snowfall event . I witnessed (possible) diamond dust, snow falling below zero, and a -20F morning. 

There was continual snow cover from 11/27 to 3/16 and a peak recorded depth of 27".

As a Super Nino takes hold, there's a great deal of uncertainty over how "bad" things might get with a warm winter all but guaranteed. 

Here in my quiet corner of the world (when I'm there), I'll continue to dream for a return to the magical times that were had not too long ago... 

 

 

[powderfreak]

16 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

I recorded 154.9" of snow on just one double digit snowfall event . 

This has to be the most NNE thing ever, haha.  Classic.

Recorded the first snowflakes on Mansfield today and first graupel at home.  

[alex]

11 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

This has to be the most NNE thing ever, haha.  Classic.

Recorded the first snowflakes on Mansfield today and first graupel at home.  

We had something like hail or graupel not sure. Ground whitened for about 47 seconds lol. First trace?

[powderfreak]

30F at 3,600ft and 41F at 1,500ft… 45F here with gusty winds.

[WxWatcher007]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

30F at 3,600ft and 41F at 1,500ft… 45F here with gusty winds.

What’s your elevation?

[mreaves]

[powderfreak]

On 10/6/2026 at 12:10 AM, WxWatcher007 said:

What’s your elevation?

Sorry for not responding earlier dude.

My wife and I made some moves this summer and we were at 750ft in Stowe Village... but we finally cashed in on the location, sold our townhome/condo for 4 times what we paid for it back in 2012 and rolled that equity into a house about 10 minutes outside the village.  We were ready to leave the village.

We are now only 10 minutes away in a neighboring valley at 1,100ft tucked in closer to the Spine.  With higher terrain on three sides of us, we seem to radiate quite well (multiple frosts so far), but I will say the daytime temps don't seem to get up nearly as much as the larger valley from the Village out towards the ASOS.

We'll see how the winter goes, but I'm interested to see what the differences are compared to over in the village.

[mreaves]

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Sorry for not responding earlier dude.

My wife and I made some moves this summer and we were at 750ft in Stowe Village... but we finally cashed in on the location, sold our townhome/condo for 4 times what we paid for it back in 2012 and rolled that equity into a house about 10 minutes outside the village.  We were ready to leave the village.

We are now only 10 minutes away in a neighboring valley at 1,100ft tucked in closer to the Spine.  With higher terrain on three sides of us, we seem to radiate quite well (multiple frosts so far), but I will say the daytime temps don't seem to get up nearly as much as the larger valley from the Village out towards the ASOS.

We'll see how the winter goes, but I'm interested to see what the differences are compared to over in the village.

Congrats on the new digs. When are you getting a PWS?

[powderfreak]

13 hours ago, mreaves said:

Congrats on the new digs. When are you getting a PWS?

That’s the next priority, as much as the wife thinks buying new furniture is, ha. 

[mreaves]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

That’s the next priority, as much as the wife thinks buying new furniture is, ha. 

When you do, make sure to invite @dendriteup to properly site it and set up adequate soil moisture sensors for you. 

[WxWatcher007]

Snow showers in the forecast for the first time for next weekend. Cross guidance signal for a deep through to roll through. Been there for a while actually.

[J.Spin]

On 10/8/2026 at 8:49 PM, powderfreak said:

My wife and I made some moves this summer and we were at 750ft in Stowe Village... but we finally cashed in on the location, sold our townhome/condo for 4 times what we paid for it back in 2012 and rolled that equity into a house about 10 minutes outside the village.  We were ready to leave the village.

We are now only 10 minutes away in a neighboring valley at 1,100ft tucked in closer to the Spine.  With higher terrain on three sides of us, we seem to radiate quite well (multiple frosts so far), but I will say the daytime temps don't seem to get up nearly as much as the larger valley from the Village out towards the ASOS.

We'll see how the winter goes, but I'm interested to see what the differences are compared to over in the village.

Wow, that’s exciting news PF.

My wife and I have always though your location was so fun and convenient with essentially walking access to the Stowe Recreation path, Stowe Village, Little River, tons of restaurants, and everything else. It’s interesting to hear you say you were ready to leave the village – was it just a stage of life thing, or were there specific reasons like Mountain Road traffic, etc.? As locals to the area who are in the Stowe a lot, we’re just sort of curious to hear the perspective from someone who’s been living in the village area and decided to move a bit outside of town.

And of course, we’ve both been trying to figure out the rough location of where you’ve moved to now based on your comments, so feel free to pass along whatever level of information you’re comfortable with for the locals that know the area. There are only so many spots that would fit your description of close to Stowe and tucked up against the spine, so our first thoughts were the Moscow/Nebraska Valley area. We couldn’t think of much else that would fit unless one headed more north up toward Morrisville.

Indeed, it’s going to be very interesting to see the changes in your winter weather vs. your location in town – there’s both the slight bump in elevation as well as proximity to the spine to think about with respect to what happens with snowfall. Based on what we’ve seen around here in our area, I wouldn’t be surprised if the proximity to the spine ends up being a bigger factor.

[WxWatcher007]

Interesting end to the BTV discussion 

With a northwesterly flow and sufficient moisture in place, we
cannot rule out upslope/mountain snow showers or flurries next
weekend, with some minor summit-level accumulations possible. Once
the system exits and skies finally clear, this autumn snow against
the remaining fall foliage at low elevations could make for a highly
picturesque and contrasting view across the high peaks of the
Adirondacks and Vermont`s Green Mountains.

[powderfreak]

17 hours ago, J.Spin said:

My wife and I have always though your location was so fun and convenient with essentially walking access to the Stowe Recreation path, Stowe Village, Little River, tons of restaurants, and everything else. It’s interesting to hear you say you were ready to leave the village – was it just a stage of life thing, or were there specific reasons like Mountain Road traffic, etc.? As locals to the area who are in the Stowe a lot, we’re just sort of curious to hear the perspective from someone who’s been living in the village area and decided to move a bit outside of town.

I'll be honest, the traffic never bothered me.  It's like 4-6 days out of 365... foliage is the worst like what we just went through, but you know when its coming and can navigate it.  I generally find those things overblown but people lose their minds with social media photos and stuff of peak events.  Whatever, its the price you pay for living where everyone wants to visit.

For us, it really was the characteristics of the town and where we were changed over time.  I don't want to go on an AirBnB rant, I've used them and they serve a great purpose.  I'm also not someone who wants to tell someone what they can and can't do with their property.  However, we used to have a bit more of a community in the area.  Local families lived in our townhome area, we had local young professionals (we lived next to a couple Inntopia developers for up to a decade, F/B Director at Trapps, etc), there were people living nearby, dogs, kids and it felt different.

Now, we've seen most of them leave and units turned into straight AirBnB rentals with new folks every weekend.  Strangers wandering around, usually respectful, sometimes not, but it's just different.  It was like living in the middle of a hotel operation.  Cleaning crews rolling in around 11am after folks checkout of neighboring units.  The vibe changed drastically over the past decade from one of like community to just living in the middle of vacationers.  Units used to be owned by people, now the HOA even just has units with LLCs listed as contacts and it's like, what are we doing?

I loved the location, the Rec Path, the river, but as getting older, we stopped going out so being walking distance to like Piecasso became less important.  Going to the bars with friends and walking home was fun a 12 years ago, ha.  But overall, it was more just having strangers around all the time, people on our porch looking in because they are lost and forgot where they rented for the night, just things that come up when living in the middle of one of the biggest AirBnB battles in the state of Vermont that's raging between the town Selectboard and residents right now.

[WxWatcher007]

I'm still a little skeptical, but I'm buying a little more stock in snow this weekend. The signal for at least first flakes is across guidance, and now we're starting to see guidance show the potential for minor accumulation. SLK averages first measurable on Oct 23, so this would be timely. 

[powderfreak]

52 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

I'm still a little skeptical, but I'm buying a little more stock in snow this weekend. The signal for at least first flakes is across guidance, and now we're starting to see guidance show the potential for minor accumulation. SLK averages first measurable on Oct 23, so this would be timely. 

This would do it.

[WxWatcher007]

Just now, powderfreak said:

This would do it.

We hope. It's not in fantasy land so I feel good about that. We can produce on these setups.