It looks like the next snow event in our area is on tap for tomorrow, with low pressure tracking into Southern New England. Checking in on the discussion from the National Weather Service office in Burlington, the snow level is expected to rise to the 1,500’ to 2,000’ range, with mixed snow and rain below that. The point forecast for our elevation in the Winooski Valley at ~500’ suggests 1 to 3 inches of snow in the Wednesday timeframe, with a bit more possible on Wednesday and Thursday nights. In his broadcast this morning, Roger Hill was suggesting the potential for a couple of inches of snow tomorrow morning affecting the commute. Point forecasts for the higher elevations to our north have 2 to 4 inches in the Wednesday timeframe, and farther to the south, 3 to 5 inches is coming up where the NWS says a good combination of the surface track placement and 500 to 700 mb lift get together. After that, the next storm is expected to come into the area Thursday, and provide precipitation chances through Sunday. It’s another warm system, but there will be chances for snow, especially in the higher elevations.
Stowe, VT 13MAR2011
We were up at Stowe this afternoon, and while turns at Bolton yesterday were decent, turns today were even better becasue of all the additonal snow. It snowed all day from base to summit and a good 6 to 7 inches of powder was available off the gondola. More details and photos are in my Stowe report from today.
Wet snow falling in the valley this morning
I woke up to find wet snow falling here at the house. I’ve added an image of the new snow from out back, and the Intellicast colored radar image as well. Full details are in my morning report to the NNE thread at Americanwx.com.
Bolton Valley, VT 12MAR2011
I headed up to Bolton Valley today to catch some afternoon turns, and the sking was pretty nice. There were a couple of fresh inches, and conditions varied from wintry up top with the surfaces helped out by the new powder, to borderline spring-like down low with the surfaces helped out by the warmer temperatures. The powder off piste was certainly vairable, but there were nice turns depending on elevation and aspect. More details and images are in my Bolton Valley, VT 12MAR2011 report.
Potential snowfall update
Over in the NNE thread at Americanwx.com, Powderfreak just mentioned the chance for up to 3 to 6 inches of snow in the next 36 hours, so we’ll be watching for that.
Snowing this morning
I just checked outside here and light snow is falling, but nothing that would accumulate at this point.
Dylan in the powder on the Stowe website
One of the pictures from our Tuesday visit to Stowe was added to the photo gallery on their website: it’s Dylan ripping up the powder in the Nastar Hill/Meadows area. Way to go Dylan! You can click on the image here to see it full size, there’s another version available in Stowe’s Gallery, or you can find it by browsing the gallery.
Stowe, VT 08MAR2011
Dylan and I headed off to Stowe today to make some more turns in the snow from our recent storm. By this morning we’d picked up 25 inches of snow at the house, and some of the Vermont resorts had received more than 3 feet. It was a sunny, blue sky day, and the first thing that grabbed our attention when we got to the mountain was the view of the powdery lower slopes of Spruce Peak. While they were adorned with plenty of tracks, we could see that lots of fresh lines were left, so we had to check that out for our first run. We eventually worked our way over to the Mt. Mansfield side of the resort as well, and we really worked ourselves hard in all the powder. The snow was synoptic in density, and there was a little wind crust in exposed spots, but it was still oh so good. Dylan did a nice job managing the tricky conditions, even though he doesn’t yet have any fat skis. To read about all the details and see the images from the day, check out the full trip report from March 8th at Stowe.
Bolton Valley, VT 07MAR2011
We spent the morning around at the house playing in the snow and taking care of snow removal, and then we headed up to Bolton Valley at some point after 1:00 P.M. to check out the new powder and get in some storm day turns. Bolton’s Vista Quad was on wind hold, but Timberline was running well and we spent the afternoon there. I did several depth checks in the 1,500’ to 2,500’ elevation range and got measurement of 26 to 31 inches for the depth of the new snow. There were some gusty winds at times, but Timberline is fairly protected and wind wasn’t bad except on the ridgelines. The new powder was just medium-density snow at ~10% H2O, and I guess the only thing that might made it better would be if it had been topped off with a bit of our Champlain Powder™ fulff, but let’s just say that it was quite a day to be out there. It was certainly not one to be missed, but in case you did, you can check out all the details and the powdery images in the full Bolton Valley trip report from today.
Bolton Valley, VT 06MAR2011
E and her co-director decided to cancel ski program at Stowe today due to so many parents being concerned about the large incoming storm, so I popped up to Bolton Valley for a bit this afternoon to see how some of the new snow was taking hold. The conditions were actually quite nice, as the new snow is dense and it seems to be bonding to the old snow as it cools down. I skied Hard Luck, which is fairly steep, and although I was certainly touching down on the old snow at times, even that was reasonably pliable and the new dense stuff was providing quite a ride even on pitches in the 30-degree range. I followed up with Beech Seal, smiling the whole way as I ripped fresh snow down the deserted slopes. I didn’t get any images of the new snow from up on the mountain, but I grabbed a shot out back at the house when I was making my weather observations at 4:30 P.M., and the snowy branches were representative of how the trees were starting to look up on the mountain. For all the details, check out the full report from up at Bolton today.