Friday, December 19th, 2008

 

I'm in Burlington now, so I've got a good view of the Green Mountain spine from Mansfield south to the Lincoln Peak area, and things are certainly starting to happen there.  This morning there were some areas of thin or cloudless sky with a nice sunrise, but thick clouds have been building in since then.  Over the past 20 to 30 minutes, it already appears as if a couple pockets of snow have started to drop along the spine - one in the region between Bolton Mountain and the I-89/Winooski Valley corridor and then another between Mt. Ira Allen and Stark Mountain.

 

-J

 

Summary:  7.9” new snow in Waterbury (495’) as of 10:00 P.M. EST

 

Friday, December 19th, 2008:  10:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

 

New Snow: 7.9 inches

Liquid Equivalent:  0.40 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 19.8

Snow Density:  5.1%

Temperature:  9.0 F

Humidity:  59%

Dew Point:  -5.8 F

Barometer:  30.18 in. Hg

Wind:  Calm

Sky:  Moderate Snow

Storm snow total:  7.9 inches

Storm liquid equivalent total:  0.40 inches

Current snow at the stake:  15 inches

Season snowfall total:  56.2 inches

 

The snow started at ~1:45 P.M. this afternoon in Burlington, and as others have noted with this system, it quickly ramped up to significant intensity.  We were in the Burlington area most of the evening, and snow was beautiful fluffy stuff falling at roughly an inch per hour.  Burlington was only under a winter weather advisory for 3 to 6 inches earlier in the day, but they eventually surpassed the 6-inch mark and I noticed that the Burlington NWS upgraded the area to a winter storm warning.  The change was discussed in an update put out this evening:

 

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BURLINGTON VT

652 PM EST FRI DEC 19 2008

 

.NEAR TERM /THROUGH SATURDAY/...

-- Changed Discussion --

AS OF 650 PM EST FRIDAY...HAVE UPDATED THE FORECAST TO UPGRADE

CHITTENDEN...LAMOILLE...AND CALEDONIA COUNTIES FROM WINTER WEATHER

ADVISORY TO A WINTER STORM WARNING. A NARROW BAND OF MODERATE TO

HEAVY SNOW DEVELOPED ACROSS NORTHERN NEW YORK AND NORTHERN VERMONT

EARLIER THIS EVENING ALONG AN AREA OF DEFORMATION ALOFT. SNOWFALL

TOTALS IN THE BURLINGTON AREA HAVE ALSO BEEN ENHANCED AS NORTH

WINDS ARE FUNNELED DOWN AND CONVERGE ALONG THE NARROWING CHAMPLAIN

VALLEY. THIS HAS RESULTED IN SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 6 INCHES IN

JUST A COUPLE OF HOURS. SEE ALBPNSBTV FOR A FULL LISTING OF

SNOWFALL AMOUNTS SO FAR. BUFKIT SOUNDINGS ARE SATURATED TO NEARLY

25 KFT AND INDICATE FAVORABLE SNOW GROWTH EXISTS FROM THE SURFACE

UP TO 10-15 KFT. GIVEN THESE FACTORS...FEEL HEAVY SNOWFALL WILL

CONTINUE THROUGH THE NEXT FEW HOURS AND UPPED STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL

AMOUNTS TO AROUND 8 INCHES IN NORTHERN VERMONT...WITH LOCALLY

HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. NO OTHER CHANGES ARE NEEDED AT THIS TIME.

ALL UPDATED PRODUCTS HAVE BEEN ISSUED.

 

When I saw that extra area of deformation snow on the radar, it seemed likely that Northern Vermont was going to get in on some bonus snowfall.  Moderate snow fell all the way on our drive back to Waterbury, and the roads were actually in decent shape.  Much of I-89 was clear pavement, with the biggest issue being visibility when the snowfall intensified or another car passed.  Off the interstate, the roads were generally packed snow, but the driving was fine.

 

Back at the house I found 7.9 inches of new snow on the snowboard, and the snow had stacked up fairly vertically as opposed to creating a trapezoidal shape the way many snowfalls do.  So as of now we are right near the top end of the 4 to 8-inch accumulations forecast in our winter storm warning, and we may pick up a bit more snow overnight.  I measured 0.40 inches of liquid from my core sample off the snowboard, and as there was a lull in the snowfall not long after my observations, I also brought in the snow/rain gauge.  It really looked like the gauge had overflowed, but the liquid it collected (0.36 inches) was only 10% below what I got off the snowboard, so it apparently didn’t miss too much of the precipitation.  The new snow is beautiful powder with a water content of ~5%, so it should ski beautifully assuming it wasn’t too hammered by wind in the higher elevations.

 

J.Spin

 

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Saturday, December 20th, 2008

 

Summary:  9.8” storm total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:00 A.M. EST

 

Saturday, December 20th, 2008:  7:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

 

New Snow: 1.9 inches

Liquid Equivalent:  0.03 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 63.3

Snow Density:  1.6%

Temperature:  7.7 F

Humidity:  59%

Dew Point:  -7.1 F

Barometer:  30.30 in. Hg

Wind:  Calm

Sky:  Light Snow

Storm snow total:  9.8 inches

Storm liquid equivalent total:  0.43 inches

Current snow at the stake:  14 inches

Season snowfall total:  58.1 inches

 

We picked up a couple more inches of ~2% H2O fluff overnight, to bring the event total to 9.8 inches and 0.43 inches of liquid.  We’re planning to head up to the mountain for some skiing this morning, so I’ll report back on what went on in the higher elevations later today.

 

J.Spin

 

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Summary:  10.7” storm total in Waterbury (495’) as of 3:00 P.M. EST

 

Saturday, December 20th, 2008:  1:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

 

New Snow: 0.7 inches

Liquid Equivalent:  0.03 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 23.3

Snow Density:  4.3%

Temperature:  20.5 F

Humidity:  58%

Dew Point:  5.4 F

Barometer:  30.24 in. Hg

Wind:  Calm

Sky:  Mostly Sunny

Storm snow total:  10.5 inches

Storm liquid equivalent total:  0.46 inches

Current snow at the stake:  14 inches

Season snowfall total:  58.8 inches

 

It was snowing when we headed up to the mountain this morning, and when we came back we found that we’ picked up another 0.7 inches since the 7:00 A.M. snowboard clearing.  The sun came out and the sky was mostly sunny for the middle of the day, but around 2:00 P.M. clouds came back in and we picked up another couple tenths of snow from a snow shower.

 

Up on the mountain the temperature was 5 F when we arrived a bit after 8:00 A.M., but fortunately there was absolutely no wind and the skiing was comfortable.  Bolton is reporting 11 inches of new snow in the past 24 hours, and when I checked I found about 8 to 12 inches of new snow on the main mountain in the 2,100’ to 3,150’ elevation range.  The sun came out for the midday, and by the time we left the temperature was up to 15 F in the village (~2,100’) and approximately 20 F down at the house (495’).

 

Here are the 24-hour accumulations I’ve seen for some of the Vermont ski areas, listed north to south along the Green Mountain Spine:

 

Jay Peak: 10”

Smuggler’s Notch: 10”

Stowe: 11”

Bolton Valley: 11”

Mad River Glen: 13”

Sugarbush: 12”

Killington: 17”

Okemo: 12”

Bromley: 13”

Magic Mountain: 10”

Stratton: 13”

Mount Snow: 14”

 

J.Spin

 

Gauge 0.06

 

 

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I checked my spreadsheet data from the '07-'08 snowfall season and as of 9:00 P.M. on December 20th, 2008, we were at 69.3 inches of snow accumulation, so we were actually ahead of this point at this time last year.  The total for the '07-'08 season at our location wound up being 203.2 inches, which is certainly the highest I've recorded, but this is only my third season at this location so the only other data I have to compare to is '06-'07 which ended up at 153.4 inches.  Summaries of the annual data, with pictures, reports, graphs etc. are available through the link at the bottom of my signature.

 

-J

 

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Sunday, December 21st, 2008

 

Summary:  11.6” storm total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:00 A.M. EST

 

Sunday, December 21st, 2008:  1:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

 

New Snow: 0.6 inches

Liquid Equivalent:  N.D.

Snow/Water Ratio: N.D.

Snow Density:  N.D.

Temperature:  12.2 F

Humidity:  64%

Dew Point:  -0.8 F

Barometer:  30.03 in. Hg

Wind:  Calm

Sky:  Cloudy

Storm snow total:  11.6 inches

Storm liquid equivalent total:  0.47 inches

Current snow at the stake:  13 inches

Season snowfall total:  58.8 inches

 

I cleared the snowboard last night at 10:00 P.M. to reveal 0.5 inches of fluffy snow, and this morning at 7:00 A.M. there was another 0.6 inches of the same stuff.  I didn’t attempt to take cores on either one of those to get the liquid equivalent, since I knew they’d likely be in the sub 0.01-inch range, but I did melt down the contents in my snow/rain gauge from that period and got a total just shy of 0.01 inches (it looked to me to be about 0.008 inches if I had to round beyond the increments).  There was no snow falling at the time, although now we’ve got some flurries.  The next storm appears to be on our doorstep however, so I’m going to make this the break point between the events – here are the totals for the 12/19-12/21 event:

 

Snow: 11.6”

Liquid: 0.47” (cores), 0.43” (rain/snow gauge)

 

There was decent correlation between the two liquid determination methods this time, and from my observations of the gauge during the event some of the reason for the lower snow/rain gauge value is likely a bit of overflow of snow.

 

J.Spin

 

 

 

 

Bolton Valley, VT 20DEC2008

 

The snow came down fast and furious on Friday, December 19th throughout Vermont, and as of 7:00 A.M. Saturday morning we’d picked up 9.8 inches of snow in Waterbury (495’).  Even though the snow was derived from a big synoptic system and not a localized “upslope” style event, it had upslope-style density and my valley calculations revealed that we were looking at some beautiful 4-5% H2O Champlain™ Powder.

 

The temperature dropped as the storm came through, and the forecast called for temperatures rising only into the mid teens F for Saturday.  I was skeptical about how comfortable the skiing would be, since we were looking at 8 F down at the house, and it was probably colder up on the mountain.  It wouldn’t be bad if there was no wind, but single digits and a lot of wind could take some of the fun out of the skiing.  I decided we’d head up to the slopes, and if it was too cold we’d just take a couple runs and head home.

 

We arrived in the Bolton Valley village (2,100’) to a temperature of 5 F, but it was nice to see that there was absolutely zero wind… at least in the parking lot.  We hopped on the Vista Quad and were happy to find that the air was calm all the way to the Vista Summit (3,150’) so things were looking very good.  It was snowing lightly, but visibility was good.  We started off with a run on Cobrass, which was requested by Ty.