Sunday, December 21st,
2008
Snowfall started
around 8:35 A.M. and was rather light with small flakes for the first hour or
two, but then at some point after 10:00 A.M. the rate and flake size
exploded. I checked my snowboard at
11:00 A.M. and we were up to 2.5 inches; with an air temperature of 15.1
F. I’d say we’re running at around an
inch per hour snowfall, perhaps more at times due to flake size, so I’ll check
again and see where we are at noon.
J.Spin
We’re up to 3.8 inches of snow
accumulation as of noon, so 1.3 inches fell between 11:00 A.M. and 12:00
P.M. However, the bulk of that fell in
the first half of the hour, and then it slowed down to light/moderate snowfall
so we were probably running in the 2 inch/hour range or so for a while. The temperature at noon was 17.4 F
-J.Spin
Summary: 6.7”
new snow in
Sunday, December
21st, 2008: 4:00 P.M. update
from
New Snow: 6.7
inches
Liquid
Equivalent: 0.39 inches
Snow/Water
Ratio: 17.2
Snow Density: 5.8%
Temperature: 17.6 F
Humidity: 83%
Dew Point: 11.5 F
Barometer: 29.65 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Moderate Snow
Storm snow
total: 6.7 inches
Storm liquid
equivalent total: 0.39 inches
Current snow at
the stake: 18 inches
Season snowfall
total: 66.6 inches
The snow started
here at ~8:35 P.M. this morning, and began to pick up in intensity after about
10:00 P.M. It has come down in starts
and stops as others have noted, and we’ve had some very heavy bouts of 1-2”/min
snowfall along with lots of light snow.
We went up to Bolton Valley with the boys at around 2:00 P.M. this
afternoon to make a few turns in the fresh snow, and couldn’t believe it when
we got to the village (2,100’) and found that the resort was devoid of skiers
and the lifts weren’t running. It was
dead calm, snowing moderately to heavily, and about 17 F so it was hard to ask
for more enjoyable conditions. So, with
no lifts we decided to hike for a couple runs and had some good skiing anyway. The powder wasn’t quite as light and dry as
yesterday’s stuff (my valley numbers suggest we’re in the 6% H2O
range vs. the 4-5% H2O range from Saturday) but it was still
nice. The powder had in fact settled
more than what we skied yesterday, which may have been due to some wind. Before we headed back down to the house, I
asked at the skier services desk why the lifts weren’t running. I was informed that the midday had seen
incredible winds up on the mountain (~45 MPH) and they’d had to close down the
lifts. Apparently the winds had abated
not long before we got up there, but they didn’t want to start up the lifts
again for just a couple of hours so they called it a day. I emptied my snow/rain gauge and recovered
0.29 inches of liquid, which was a whole tenth of an inch shy of what I recovered
on the snowboard.
J.Spin
-------------
Here’s an 8:00
P.M. update from Waterbury: It’s snowed
fairly steadily since the 4:00 P.M. snowboard clearing, but it’s only been
light to occasionally moderate and flakes have been rather small (1-2 mm diameter). The temperature is currently 18.0 with
light/moderate snow, and the current storm total is 8.4 inches.
J.Spin
-----------
Summary: 11.7”
storm total in
Sunday, December
21st, 2008: 10:00 P.M. update
from
New Snow: 3.8
inches
Liquid
Equivalent: 0.28 inches
Snow/Water
Ratio: 13.6
Snow
Density: 7.4%
Temperature: 18.3 F
Humidity: 90%
Dew Point: 14.7 F
Barometer: 29.44 in. Hg
Wind: 0-5 MPH
Sky: Moderate Snow
Storm snow
total: 10.5 inches
Storm liquid
equivalent total: 0.67 inches
Current snow at
the stake: 21 inches
Season snowfall
total: 70.4 inches
When I checked
the snowboard at 8:00 P.M. it had accumulated 1.7 inches of new snow since the
4:00 P.M. clearing, so snowfall was running a bit under 0.5”/hr. I looked outside at around 9:30 P.M. and it
appeared to be dumping again in the 1”/hr+ range, so I took a quick measurement
and found that the accumulation was up to 2.8 inches. The rate of snowfall had certainly
increased. I took a peek at the BTV
composite radar (image 1 below) and sure enough, an area of 30-35 db returns
was just passing over us (we’re located right about where I-89 crosses the
Chittenden/Washington county line). That
snowfall slowed down as I was getting set to take my 10:00 P.M. measurements
and clear the snowboard, but looking westward on the radar there appeared to be
some very juicy stuff coming our way, with even more 35 db returns in the
Burlington area. While I was out looking
at the stake and clearing the board, the snowfall was already ramping up,
presumably as we were on the verge of those strong returns, and I suspected we
were going to get into some quick accumulation.
We did. I knew the snowfall rate
was 1”/hr plus from looking at it, but I wasn’t sure just how intense the
snowfall was until I checked the board at 10:30 P.M. and it had a fresh 1.2
inches. So, the snowfall is running in
the 2-3”/hr range. On the radar, it
really looks like Mother Nature is spraying a fire hose down the
J.Spin
Here’s the
11:00 P.M. update on the heavy snowfall here in
J.Spin
11:30 P.M. -
The heavy snow has slowed right down to light snow as the radar suggested, so
just 0.3” in the last 30 minutes to bring the snowboard to 2.9”. It looks like another batch of something
might come across
J.Spin
-----------
Monday, December 22nd,
2008
Current Storm Summary: 13.4” snow, 0.78” liquid equivalent
Monday, December
22nd, 2008: 6:00 A.M. update
from
New Snow: 2.9
inches
Liquid
Equivalent: 0.11 inches
Snow/Water
Ratio: 26.4
Snow
Density: 3.8%
Temperature: 15.4 F
Humidity: 77%
Dew Point: 7.1 F
Barometer: 29.59 in. Hg
Wind: 0-5 MPH
Sky: Flurries
Storm snow
total: 13.4 inches
Storm liquid
equivalent total: 0.78 inches
Current snow at
the stake: 22 inches
Season snowfall
total: 73.3 inches
There’s no new
snow to report beyond what came down in the blitz last night, but I did empty
my snow/rain gauge and it has accumulated a total of 0.65” of liquid vs. the
0.78” obtained off the snowboard.
J.Spin