January 18, a Sunday, was the last day the mountain saw any above-freezing temperatures. A lot of weather has occurred since then but on that day, in spite of the mild slightly above freezing temperatures, 10 inches of wet snow fell on the mountain. The snow turned powdery as temperatures turned colder on January 19th and 3 weeks, nearly 75 inches and zero above-freezing days later we have reached this quite distinctive epic state. Congrats to Patriots and their fans for the Superbowl win, but a bigger congrats is owed to the skiers of Vermont since the place we call home has earned a temporary spot as "the place for powder"in North America. If powderhounds want to "get some" they will need to come here to do it.
We have a couple of tranquil and rather comfortable days Tuesday and Wednesday before things turn interesting yet again. The ridge-west, trough-east long wave configuration will keep New England prognosticators in continuous demand as a series of clippers, one Thursday and one over the weekend both bring snow potential. I expect MRG to at least get a piece of the Thursday system and maybe Sunday as well, but the already hammered areas of eastern New England could get several pieces of both if not another round of "pie in the face". The snow from Clipper #1 Thursday will begin in the morning. This system is not going to receive much of any southern branch moisture and will have to work with what's available from the Atlantic. Snow during the day and the subsequent night could provide an additional 4-8 inches but more could fall in coastal areas as the storm intensifies offshore.
Clipper #1 marks the first in a series of polar intrusions stemming from a newly invigorated, but more of the same, ridge west, trough east pattern. The support for this continues to be more than glaring with the jet stream in the Pacific Ocean all loosey goosey while anomalous sea surface temperature warmth continues to dominate the northeast Pacific Ocean. Temperatures will thus get very chilly again with readings below 10 on Friday, below zero Friday night and barely 10 Saturday. This sets the stage for Clipper #2 which will skydive into the Great Lakes Saturday and attack the northeast Sunday. This storm has even more potential than the first as far as eventual strength is concerned since the pattern is expected to become even more amplified. Much of the energy however will be south of the region so we could swing and miss at this one but we will be watching. If the maturation of this storm can occur a bit earlier than currently indicated, the strengthening system can make a northward turn and suck its moisture into the interior mountains.
Late Sunday into President's Day promises to be cold thanks to all the aforementioned weather players. After the holiday however, the pattern may relax just enough to allow some southern branch energy to produce a significant storm sometime in between the 17th and 19th of the month. It should remain well below normal from a temperature standpoint thus pushing the streak of below freezing days to a month.
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9 comments:
Its about time we had an epic winter. Been far too long - keep the karma coming.
Why aren't you mentioning the fact that Presidents Weekend, from Saturday through Monday could feature blisteringly cold negative temperatures (as currently modeled on the GFS, Euro, and Canadian models), without even factoring in any potential wind chill? Barely 10F on Saturday? That might be optimistic. Then you completely fail to mention Sunday and Monday's temps. Seems odd.....
Hey Benny:
Late Sunday into President's Day promises to be cold...
...It should remain well below normal from a temperature standpoint thus pushing the streak of below freezing days to a month.
Sounds like he addressed it to me! Also there are numerous other sites that can provide a forecasted temperature - the SCWB is merely a (very useful) tool in an entire belt of skier's knowledge.
I probably should have brought up some specifics regarding the holiday cold. A little dazed perhaps from all the powder. Even if we miss the Sunday storm, and we may not miss it, we will get the wind and some brutally cold temperatures Sunday Monday. Maybe a two day stretch of sub-zero readings and 30 below wind chills.
AndyK
The cold is good, keeps the lines down at the single and keeps the snow nice and fluffy. If its too cold, stay inside, but don't hog all the Lawson's.
I found your pass and turned it into the last and found. it was on a blue square
I was going to write something about that in this coming post
"It was on a blue square," I hope that's tongue in cheek, either that or you haven't skied MRG much...
If ya''ll skied Smuggs you wouldn't be worried about wind holds, and sub-zero temps. When we get cold we hike the back bowls. Just saying.
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