Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
I’m not sure what time it started snowing, but as of 6:30 A.M. we’ve received 0.5 inches of new snow here in Waterbury with light to moderate snowfall, T=10.4 F, RH=82%, DP=3.9 F
Summary: 0.8” new snow in Waterbury (495’)
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008: 8:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT
New Snow: 0.8 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.06 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 13.3
Snow Density: 7.5%
Temperature: 13.1 F
Humidity: 82%
Dew Point: 6.6 F
Barometer: 30.45 in. Hg
Wind: ~5 MPH
Sky: Light/Moderate Snow
Storm snow total: 0.8 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.06 inches
Current snow at the stake: 6 inches
Season snowfall total: 30.2 inches
We bottomed out yesterday evening at -4.7 F here in Waterbury according to our thermometer, and since that time the temperature has been rising, reaching -1.7 F at around 11:00 P.M., 10.4 F at 6:30 A.M. and 13.1 F at 8:00 A.M. Steady snowfall is continuing at a light to borderline moderate pace, but the flakes are fairly small in diameter (1-2 mm) and aren’t accumulating with very much loft.
J.Spin
Summary: Waterbury event total is 1.1” snow as of 10:00 A.M.
This morning’s snowfall tapered off in Waterbury around 9:00 A.M., at which point we’d picked up an additional 0.3 inches of snow on the snowboard to bring the event total to 1.1 inches. The temperature had continued to rise, from 13.1 F at 8:00 A.M., to 18.3 F at 10:00 A.M. At that point I headed up to Bolton Valley for some skiing, and at the base of the Timberline area (~1,550’) the temperature was in the range of 19 to 20 F. I skinned up to the mid station there (~2,250’) finding about 6 to 8 inches of snow above the base layer in that elevation range where the wind hadn’t hit it. By about 11:30 A.M. when I was back down at the car the temperature had risen to the 23-24 F range. I continued on up to the main village area (~2,150’) for some lift-served skiing after that, and found about 8 to 9 inches of snow above the base layer in the 2,500’-3,000’ elevation range. When I left the mountain at around 1:30 P.M., the temperature in the village was 29 F. The warm air certainly seemed to be getting up at that elevation first, because there was a temperature inversion in effect. By the time I descended back down to the valley (340’) the temperature was only 24 F. I traveled to Burlington next, and when I got there around 2:00 P.M. the temperature was 36 F and my car was buffeted by some strong southerly winds when I was in exposed areas.
J.Spin
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Summary: Waterbury event total is 1.1” snow as of 10:00 A.M.
This morning’s snowfall tapered off in Waterbury around 9:00 A.M., at which point we’d picked up an additional 0.3 inches of snow on the snowboard to bring the event total to 1.1 inches. The temperature had continued to rise, from 13.1 F at 8:00 A.M., to 18.3 F at 10:00 A.M.
With the warmer temperatures and new snow, I decided to head up to Bolton Valley for some skiing. The mountain was reporting 13 inches in the past 48 hours, with 2 inches coming from this morning’s snowfall as of 7:40 A.M., and at that point it was still snowing. To get in a workout and cash in on some of the new powder, I decided to first to skin up Timberline with my alpine fats. At the base of the Timberline area (~1,550’) the temperature was in the range of 19 to 20 F. I skinned up to the mid station (~2,250’) finding about 6 to 8 inches of snow above the base layer in that elevation range where the wind hadn’t hit it. The turns were nice, but even with the fats I touched down about half the time because all the powder was pretty light. By about 11:30 A.M. when I was back down at the car the temperature had risen to the 23-24 F range.
I next headed up to the village (~2,150’) for some lift-served skiing on my Teles. The skiing was excellent, with generally soft packed powder on the groomed runs thanks to the past two storms. I’d say they had about 2 to 3 inches of new snow on top of the upslope snow from Sunday. I found about 8 to 9 inches of powder above the base layer in the 2,500’-3,000’ elevation range, and the mountain was opening lots of additional terrain. All the steep stuff between Spillway and Schuss was open for the taking, and some of those trails had some pretty deep powder and just a couple of tracks. It was one of those typical
When I left the mountain at around 1:30 P.M., the temperature in the village was 29 F. The warm air certainly seemed to be getting up at that elevation first, because there was a temperature inversion in effect. By the time I descended back down to the valley (340’) the temperature was only 24 F. I traveled to Burlington next, and when I got there around 2:00 P.M. the temperature was 36 F and my car was buffeted by some strong southerly winds when I was in exposed areas.
I left Burlington around 5:30 P.M. and the temperature was up to 41 F, but as I headed east into the mountains I was once again shown the powerful effect they have on the weather. The temperature began to drop as I passed the Williston area, and the degrees were almost ticking off by the mile. By the time I’d hit Jonesville, the temperature was down to 32 F and I made sure to be on the lookout for ice on the road. It sounded like it was even colder the father one headed north and east, as my wife came home from Morrisville about a half hour before me and said her thermometer was right at 28 F the whole way. In terms of precipitation, once our snow shut off in Waterbury at around 9:00 A.M., I didn’t see any for the rest of the day except for a few spits in the last few miles of my drive.
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT
New Snow: 0.3 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.03 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 10
Snow Density: 10.0%
Temperature: 32.7 F
Humidity: 73%
Dew Point: 23.0 F
Barometer: 30.12 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Partly Cloudy/Sprinkles
Storm snow total: 1.1 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.09 inches
Current snow at the stake: 5 inches
Season snowfall total: 30.5 inches
J.Spin
On December 9th, 2008 at 5:19 P.M. NZucker wrote: “J.Spin, can't believe you're over 30 inches on the season! What are your thoughts on the next few days? Rain? Snow? Flash freezes? Mess?”
We just passed 30 inches with the bit of front end snow this morning, but it's definitely thanks to our two upslope events (#s 4 and 9 in my signature) that we're over 30 inches - they constitute 2/3 of our snowfall. It's going to be an interesting next several days, but I've still got to browse the board a bit to get a feel for what is going to happen with the storm towards the weekend. When I was looking on the board last night everyone was suggesting no snow for anyone in New England (I think in the Euro thread) but now it seems that it may be better than that. It does sound like we'll get a flash freeze tomorrow, but I'm intrigued by the talk of snow on the back end. That always seems to be forecast to some extent, but we rarely ever seem to get more than dust, so it will be neat if we pick up something. The skiing was really good today (pic below from when I was up at Bolton) - this thaw freeze will mess up our powder, but the base is getting deeper with each storm and lots of trails are opening. A nice dump from the later week system would great, but we'll just have to see what happens.
The rain changed back to snow here in Burlington somewhere in the 10:30 A.M. timeframe, but it’s just now (~11:30 A.M.) starting to accumulate on the grass/elevated surfaces.
J.Spin
The snow stopped here in Burlington (UVM Campus 380’) at around 2:45 P.M. I stepped outside and checked on the accumulation and it looks to be in the range of ½” - 1”.
J.Spin
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT
New Snow: 1.4 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.22 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 6.4
Snow Density: 15.7%
Temperature: 26.1 F
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 22.1 F
Barometer: 30.15 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Storm snow total: 2.5 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.31 frozen/0.36 liquid/0.67 total
Current snow at the stake: 3 inches
Season snowfall total: 31.9 inches
In Burlington, UVM (380’) appeared to pick up ½” – 1” of snow from the back side of this event. As I traveled through the mountains on my way back to Waterbury, it didn’t look like the mountain valleys had done much better than that, although the new snow did look a little deeper as I passed through the spine of the Greens. At the Waterbury Park and Ride (500’) near the center of town, I’d almost say there was slightly less accumulation than what I saw in Burlington, perhaps ½” is what I cleaned off my car. However, as I traveled back toward our house (495’) a few miles in the direction of the spine, the accumulations seemed to increase. As soon as I approached our driveway I could tell by the tire tracks from my wife’s car that we had over an inch, and it turned out to be 1.4 inches once I measured it off the snowboard. So it does appear as though the mountains helped out a bit with accumulation as that front passed. The bottom ¼” of the accumulation was a gradually thickening continuum of very hard snow that culminated in a thin sheet of ice on the snowboard surface. It was one of the more difficult scraping jobs I’ve had to do on the snowboard, as it required a solid 10 minutes of work and I even had to use those nasty spikes on the back of the scraper that I’d be hesitant to use on my windshield. I brought in the rain/snow gauge and melted down its contents to reveal 0.67 inches of liquid, so this storm’s precipitation was about 50/50 frozen/liquid for our location, with 0.31 inches of snow etc. collected on the front and back ends, and 0.36 inches of liquid that fell in the middle. It doesn’t seem like the snow accumulations in the local mountains were much more than what we received down here, as up above us at Bolton Valley (3,150’) they reported 2 inches of new snow at their 4:00 P.M. update.
J.Spin