Tuesday, October 28th, 2009
"I looked outside at around 7:50 P.M. and snow had started here in Waterbury. Small flakes in the 1-2 mm range at first but rapidly growing larger with 5-10 mm flakes mixing in now. The temperature had dropped pretty quickly over the previous couple of hours from the mid 40s F down to 35.4 F. There are already slushy crystals building up on the snowboard so I should have an accumulation to report tomorrow morning."
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT
New Snow: 0.5 inches
Temperature: 34.9 F
Humidity: 78%
Dew Point: N.D.
Barometer: N.D.
Wind: Calm
Sky: Flurries
Cumulative storm snow total: 0.5 inches
Current snow at the stake: Trace
Season snowfall total: 0.5 inches
"I first saw snowfall at the house yesterday at around 7:50 P.M.; the rain had changed over and the air temperature was 35.4 F. It snowed lightly until I went to bed, and this morning there was a half inch on the snowboard with the grass covered with an uneven coating of white. There were still flurries in the air with a temperature of 34.9 F, and the lowest value recorded by the thermometer since yesterday evening was 34.7 F. As I traveled through the Richmond area this morning they appeared to have a more substantial coating of snow than we had in Waterbury, however here in Burlington there is no snow on the ground."
Matt Bruhns indicated 8-10 inches of accumulation at the base of the Gondola waterfall in his report to SkiVT-L. That's at an elevation of ~3,200', so there could be more up above that depending on how the snow level dropped through the storm, or perhaps snow collected well over there. We should get an idea of the snow at the stake this afternoon. There will be some settling by then of course, but from my window here it does look like there is some upslope snowfall in effect as well, so that may get added. The Stowe website indicates accumulations of 3-5", but I'm not sure where they took the measurement. With my view from Sugarbush to north of Mansfield it looks like the upslope is really hitting harder from Mansfield northward. South of Mansfield the clouds are sitting at around 3,000' on the mountains, but there's just not that "white wall" appearance there, so I doubt the snowfall could be very prodigious at least right now. I got an email from Bolton Valley today indicating 6 inches of new snow up at their summit (3,150'). I was surprised to see that Jay Peak is indicating only 5 inches as of 10:00 A.M., but again I'm not sure if that's a base or summit measurement. I'll try to compile some updates throughout the day as more information comes in.
Here are some of the latest snowfall updates I've seen from the area:
Jay Peak: 8" (5:30 P.M.)
Stowe: 7" (9:37 A.M.)
Mt. Mansfield Stake: 12" (5:47 P.M., ~3,700')
Bolton Valley: 6" (9:40 A.M., 3,150')
Mad River Glen: 3" (8:00 A.M.)
Sugarbush: 6" (8:48 A.M.)
Killington: 10" (Peak)
Okemo: 3" (9:28 A.M.)
It's pretty impressive to see that there's still a foot of snow at the stake even after some settling, although they may have gotten some additional snow through the day due to upslope. For those that would like to get some Mansfield visuals, Joshua Auerbach had some pictures from Mt. Mansfield along with his SkiVT-L trip report from today. There was a lot of talk about the Adirondacks getting hammered with this storm, and if the snow stuck around, we were thinking of heading across the lake to Whiteface with the boys for some turns. But, the latest news I've heard is that Whiteface received accumulations similar to Mt. Mansfield, so we would probably just stick around locally for skiing.
Thursday, October 30th, 2008: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT
New Snow: 1.0 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.08 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 12.5
Snow Density: 8.0% H2O
Temperature: 32.5 F
Humidity: 76%
Dew Point: N.D.
Barometer: 30.18 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow
Cumulative storm snow total: 1.5 inches
Cumulative storm frozen liquid total: 0.27 inches
Cumulative storm liquid total: 1.13 inches
Season liquid total: 1.13 inches
Current snow at the stake: 1 inch
Season snowfall total: 1.5 inches
"We picked up more snow overnight here in the valley, and in our location we've certainly got a more substantial coating on the ground than last night. The snow is also much drier in this round, as indicated by the water content (8% H2O). It must have all fallen into cold air because there wasn't any slush on the bottom and it just slid right off the snowboard. We continue to have steady, light snowfall outside, and we've picked up another couple of tenths in the past half hour so the snowfall is running a bit under 0.5 inches/hour. It certainly looks like this is upslope snowfall so it will be interesting to see how the mountains are doing."
J.Spin