Stowe, VT 09JAN2011
Today was our first
school program session of the season, so we were off at Stowe for
the afternoon. With the level of skier
traffic, especially weekend skier traffic that Stowe
sees, Sunday afternoons don’t typically offer optimal snow surfaces. However, last season had
to be a low point in that continuum; not only was the snowfall below
average, but an inordinate number of times the next round of snow seemed to
come in for Monday, after we were done skiing.
So far this season
however, things have been much better.
We had fresh snow for our training day back on
Sunday, December 12th, and as we moved into our first session
with the students, it looked like Mother Nature was going to try to help out
with fresh snow again. On Friday, an inverted trough
system had set up shop over New England, and while the focus was south of our area,
we’d managed to pick up a couple more inches last night. This morning’s report from the house at 6:00
A.M. revealed the following:
Sunday 1/9/2011 6:00 A.M. update:
Event totals: 5.1”
Snow/0.29” L.E.
I cleared the snowboard last night at 10:00 P.M., and it had 0.2” snow on it comprised of 0.01” liquid. That was presumably the last accumulation from that part of the storm. I don’t know when the next round of snowfall started, but when I checked this morning a fresh 1.9” of very dry, upslope-style snow had accumulated. We are definitely into a different portion of the storm now, because the flakes are consistently larger than anything I’ve seen the past couple of days, and the snowfall rate is high. I don’t think it’s quite 1”/hr., but it’s up there due to the large flakes. Very consistent with BTV’s projected accumulations map, a sharp cutoff of precipitation is visible on the radar along the Green Mountain spine, even in composite mode.
Checking the latest NWS
discussion for the near term, the snowfall activity is expected to be higher
when a potent shortwave comes through this afternoon, so we will see how the
snowfall plays out later:
.NEAR TERM /UNTIL 7 PM THIS
EVENING/...
AS OF 330 AM EST
SUNDAY...UPPER LEVEL LOW OVER SOUTHERN NY WILL CONTINUE TO SLOWLY MOVE EAST
TODAY...MOISTURE BEGINS TO WRAP AROUND THIS SYSTEM AND MOVE INTO OUR FORECAST
AREA FROM THE NORTH. POTENT SHORTWAVE WILL DROP SOUTH ACROSS
THE CWA BETWEEN 18Z AND 00Z MONDAY. SNOW WILL INCREASE DURING THIS TIME
PERIOD...ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND THE NORTHWEST FACING
SLOPES OF THE DACKS AND GREENS. OROGRAPHIC ENHANCEMENT OF LIGHT SNOW WILL BE
EVIDENT. FIRST PART OF THE DAY TODAY
WILL BE QUIETER UNTIL THAT SHORTWAVE ENTERS THE REGION.
Some details from the 6:00
A.M. observations are below:
New Snow: 1.9 inches
New Liquid: 0.04 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 47.5
Snow Density: 2.1%
Temperature: 23.9 F
Sky: Snow (3-7 mm flakes)
Snow at the stake: 9.5 inches
At the house we’d
reached roughly a half foot of snow for the event by noontime as we were
heading off to Stowe, and steady, increasing snowfall was the
trend for the afternoon as the upslope-enhancing shortwave seemed to be on its
way. The snow on the ground and in the
air was all looking very nice as we reached the Spruce Peak base area. While E and Claire coordinated pass
distribution, I took Ty, Dylan and Luke out for a warm up run on the Sunny Spruce
Quad. On the sides of the trails we
found a good 8 inches of powder, and one of the steep pitches of Lower
Smuggler’s saw us slashing big, steep powder turns in the neglected snow off to
the skier’s right. By the end of the run
the boys were totally jazzed and ready for more.
For the day our
group had three adults and six students, and we worked on a lot of short-radius
turns enjoying the increasingly deep powder along the edges of the trails. We had some great runs off the gondola, and then
finished off the day with a trip down Nosedive that really got everyone’s blood
pumping. By the end of the afternoon
there was a good foot of powder off the sides of the trails thanks to the storm
system, and it was snowing at over an inch an hour.
We hung out and had
après ski in Spruce
Camp with some of the other families,
and it was quite a blizzard outside. I
decided to gather up all the skis and gear so that E and the boys wouldn’t need
to deal with the weather, and found that the car had already taken on quite a
layer of snow. It was hard to tell just
how hard it had been snowing with the stiff winds, but the accumulations on the
cars that had only been out for the afternoon helped put it into perspective.
Snow persisted all the
way home, and we found that just like mountain, we were getting pounded with
huge upslope flakes at the house. In
just the time that we’d been away for the afternoon, we’d picked up 6.1 inches
of additional snow, and without any wind it had gently settled down as some
classic Champlain Powder™ that was just 2.3% H2O. That was quickly followed up by another 4.4
inches of 3.0% H2O snow to ensure that tomorrow is going to be quite
spectacular on the local slopes.
Below I’ve added in
some of the weather details from this evening’s onslaught of snow that
eventually saw the western slopes of the Greens upgraded to a
Winter Storm Warning:
Sunday 1/9/2011 6:00 P.M.
update:
Event totals: 12.3”
Snow/0.47” L.E.
As of noontime today we had
accumulated 1.1 inches of new snow, and then I was able to clear the snowboard
before we headed to Stowe for the afternoon.
There was steady snow on the mountain all afternoon and into the
evening, and it seemed to increase as time went on. I bet it was above an inch per hour at times,
although it was a bit tough to tell with the wind; winds were certainly in the
20 to 30 MPH range when they were ramped up.
I didn’t know if the same heavy snowfall was hitting the valleys, but I
was very curious to see what was going on at the house. On the way home, the intensity of the
snowfall dropped off a bit as we headed down into Stowe Village, but for the
most part it really kept up with decent snowfall all along the east side of the
Greens through Waterbury Center, Colbyville, and then through Waterbury to the
house.
It was obvious that we’d
picked up a good shot of afternoon snow at the house as we plowed our way up
the driveway, and I found 6.1 inches of snow on the snowboard comprised of 0.14
inches of liquid. It was very fluffy
stuff that you could barely feel as you walked through it. The 6.1 inches was actually the largest
individual accumulation I’ve seen on the board so far this season, whether
accumulated in 6-hour, 12-hour, or even 24-hour intervals. The flakes (or aggregates in actuality) that
were falling from the sky were huge, with some up to an inch in diameter. I went with a range of 5 to 25 mm diameters
based on what I saw.
With that accumulation this
event pulled into a tie with the 12/12/2010-12/18/2010 event for second largest
of the season, but it’s continued to snow at about an inch per hour, so this
one has now taken sole possession of the number two spot. The running season snowfall average I have
for this date is 70.9 inches, and 72.0 inches for tomorrow, so if this snowfall
keeps up it might be possible to catch up to average. If that happened, it would be the first time
this season. Either way, we’re at least
getting closer.
Some details from the noontime
and 6:00 P.M. observations are below:
1/9/2011 - 12:00 P.M. observations
New Snow: 1.1 inches
New Liquid: 0.04 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 27.5
Snow Density: 3.6%
Temperature: 25.3 F
Sky: Snow (2-3 mm flakes)
Snow at the stake: 9.5 inches
1/9/2011 - 6:00 P.M.
observations
New Snow: 6.1 inches
New Liquid: 0.14 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 43.6
Snow Density: 2.3%
Temperature: 21.6 F
Sky: Snow (5-25 mm flakes)
Snow at the stake: 13.0 inches
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday 1/10/2011 12:00 A.M.
update:
Event totals: 16.7”
Snow/0.60” L.E.
I’m up doing some work so I went
out for 12:00 A.M. observations. It has
still been coming down quite steadily over the past six hours (4.4 inches),
although not quite as intensely as the previous accumulation period. With the way the snowfall has been so heavy,
I was surprised that the NWS didn’t go with a Winter Storm Warning for this
event, but I checked their page and they now have Winter Storm Warnings up for
eastern Chittenden and Addison Counties and they have also updated their storm
total snowfall maps.
DISCUSSION FROM 929 PM EST
SUNDAY... COMPOSITE RADAR LOOP SHOWING BANDS OF HEAVY SNOW
ALONG THE WESTERN SLOPES OF THE GREEN MOUNTAINS. JUST GOT A REPORT IN UNDERHILL VERMONT FROM
AN OFF DUTY NWS EMPLOYEE OF 2.5 INCHES OF SNOW IN THE PAST HOUR. HAVE ALSO RECEIVED SEVERAL OTHER REPORTS OF HEAVY SNOWFALL AS WELL.
THUS...HAVE UPGRADED
THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY TO A WINTER STORM WARNING ACROSS EASTERN CHITTENDEN
AND EASTERN ADDISON COUNTIES IN VERMONT. ALSO JUST
RECEIVED A REPORT FROM A RETIRED NWS EMPLOYEE OF 4 INCHES AT KILLINGTON
VERMONT...WITH HEAVY SNOW THERE. MAY NEED TO EXPAND WINTER WEATHER
ADVISORY TO EASTERN RUTLAND AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES IN VERMONT...SO THERE MAY
BE ANOTHER UPDATE COMING TO THIS FORECAST IN AWHILE
As noted above, if it’s
snowing more than twice as hard in Underhill as it is here, they are getting
quite a shot of snow. It will be
interesting to see how accumulations go with this event; folks taking just
24-hour measurements are going to have notably lower totals than those reading
at smaller intervals because this snow is so dry. It settles really fast; evidenced by the fact
that there were 13.0 inches at the stake at 6:00 P.M., we picked up 4.4
additional inches, and the snow at the stake is only 14.5 inches now. The 12:00 A.M. observations are below
followed by the WSW text and the updated maps
New Snow: 4.4 inches
New Liquid: 0.13 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 33.8
Snow Density: 3.0%
Temperature: 18.1 F
Sky: Snow (3-15 mm flakes)
Snow at the stake: 14.5 inches
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER
MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
BURLINGTON VT
1100 PM EST SUN JAN 9 2011
VTZ017-018-101200-
/O.CON.KBTV.WS.W.0001.000000T0000Z-110110T1500Z/
EASTERN CHITTENDEN-EASTERN
ADDISON-
INCLUDING THE CITIES
OF...UNDERHILL...BRISTOL...RIPTON
1100 PM EST SUN JAN 9 2011
...WINTER STORM WARNING
REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST
MONDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
IN BURLINGTON CONTINUES THE WINTER
STORM WARNING...UNTIL 10 AM
EST MONDAY.
* LOCATIONS...EASTERN
CHITTENDEN AND EASTERN ADDISON COUNTIES IN
VERMONT ALONG THE WESTERN
SLOPES OF THE GREEN MOUNTAINS.
* HAZARD TYPES...MODERATE TO
HEAVY SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS...4 TO 8
INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED OVERNIGHT...
WITH A STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 8 TO
12 INCHES...WITH
SOME LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE.
* TIMING...SNOW WILL CONTINUE
ACROSS THE WARNING AREA OVERNIGHT
INTO MONDAY MORNING BEFORE
TAPERING OFF BY MONDAY AFTERNOON.
* IMPACTS...DIFFICULT TRAVEL
CONDITIONS EXPECTED THROUGH MONDAY
MORNING...ESPECIALLY ACROSS
HIGHER TERRAIN AREAS.
* WINDS...WEST 10 TO 15 MPH
WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES...LOWS IN THE
TEENS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS
ACTIONS...
PLEASE STAY TUNED TO NOAA
WEATHER RADIO...YOUR LOCAL MEDIA...OR
GO TO
WWW.WEATHER.GOV/BURLINGTON FOR FURTHER UPDATES ON THIS
WEATHER SITUATION.
J.Spin