Tueday's system is getting pushed south by cold onslaught

Snow from the latest coastal New England "humdinger" has begun across the mountains of Vermont. This vicious looking weather system has yet to draw on the warm, moist waters of the Atlantic Ocean but when it does so, it's "bombs away" once again. News cycles around New England are talking about this storm in a seemingly infinite loop so I am not sure how much I can add. The track of this storm however has gradually shifted farther north. Not a lot, but enough to bring moisture into the mountains of Vermont. Snow will on the light to moderate side and the heaviest precipitation will be confined to coastal sections of New England. The entire region will get wind and brutally cold temperatures. Most of the snow across MRG will fall late in the day Saturday and Saturday night. Most of Sunday will feature just flurries, temperatures near or below zero, and wind chills of 30 below and possibly near 50 below at the mountain summits. Total snow accumulations will probably fall in that familiar 5-10 category but the snow will be wind blown, very wind blown, so taking an accurate measurement is impossible.

Both the wind and cold will continue into Monday. Actual temps Monday will be generally between negative -10 and -20 along with wind chills similar to Sunday. We've been watching the Tuesday system all week and I've been under the assumption that the pattern would relax, just enough, to allow this thing to unleash some justice on us. Unfortunately it looks like my assumption was wrong. Can't count anything completely out in a year like this but the upcoming week looks now like a period simply overwhelmed by the ferocity of the polar jet. There is "clipper-type" energy that should approach for Tuesday night into Wednesday and this might draw some limited moisture from the original Tuesday/Wednesday system back into the region. Hopefully we can pull a rabbit out of the hat again but for now expectations should be for a lighter snowfall Tuesday night into Wednesday and light accumulations of 2-5 inches.

More cold is unleashed on the region late Wednesday into Thursday. Snow covered Vermont will have to endure another sub-zero day with wind chills of 20 to 40 below zero Thursday. The cold will continue into Friday although winds might relax just a bit. I thing the overall pattern, a big positive PNA, PDO induced pattern is capable of one big reload during the weekend of the 21st and 22nd. I think a storm will be one of the byproducts of this although models have been all over the  place on where this storm happens. New England is certainly one location that could see some results however. Another round of cold follows around the time of the 22 and 23rd.

Finally, there are some indications of some serious fundamental changes in the weather pattern. Coastal New England needs a break, but I would never wish one on MRG until late April if I had my way. It looks like a possible shift in the phases of the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) will result in some big changes in the Pacific. The jet will tighten somewhat and the ridge will shift away from the western North America and focus itself more on the open waters of the vast Pacific Ocean. This should end the polar onslaught and open the door for more  of a variety pack of weather across New England toward the very end of February. Given the ice cover over the Great Lakes and the snow cover across New England, a 180 turn in the weather seems unlikely but we should notice a difference as we head into March. And we are heading toward March and we should notice the higher sun angle as well.

Lots of extreme cold with upgraded snow potential next week

We will take all the snow we can get but Southern New England needs a break and it looks like they will miss most of this next clipper (Clipper #1 from the last update). This storm will blowup off the coast but likely far enough south and east so that the heaviest snow is averted. For us, snowfall will be light as the moisture-starved system approaches but will be persistent through most of Thursday and Thursday night. The light and fluffy consistency of the snowfall will allow accumulations to exceed 3 inches and still could reach 6 or more with a little help from the combined effects of Lake Champlain and oragraphy.

A reader responded in the last update, seemingly a bit hot and bothered that I didn't point out specifics regarding the upcoming brutally cold outbreak that is expected across snow covered New England during the upcoming holiday weekend. The intensity of the cold is remarkable and will ensure that February 2015 will be one of the snowiest AND coldest in recent memory across Vermont. The first blast of cold Friday will keep temperatures sub-zero through the day on the mountain  with 20-below wind chills. This followed by a Friday night where readings fall to near -20. Clipper #2 (from the last update) brings the second and even stronger blast of cold and will likely bring the coldest readings of the season to Vermont and surrounding New England. This blast of cold could cause an outbreak of the coldest readings in "recorded" history with readings struggling to get to -10 on the mountain Sunday and perhaps as low as -25 Monday morning. To be fair, the combined effect of the very strong northwest winds and cold on Sunday into Monday will make the the 2-day period one of the coldest I can remember at MRG.

Clipper 2 is a vigorous system, loaded with potential and will help to re-amplify an already impressive jet stream. Because the pattern is so"loaded" if you will, much of the energy with Clipper #2 will be south of the region and I am expecting New Jersey, NYC, and much of the Southern New England coastline to be ground-zero for snowfall on Sunday. We could see some limited snowfall Sunday but the story will be the cold weather overall (thus the reader was right to point that out).

I would not let the very cold weather and missed snowstorm Sunday get you down however. As I hinted, the pattern will relax just enough early next week and open the door for a promising looking weather system. This system may not be a true "southern streamer" since the jet isn't split across the very dry Western United States. It will have healthy amounts of Pacific energy and moisture and gather some additional gulf moisture as it hits the southern plains Monday. Today's modeling took the storm farther north today which is a good thing (though I don't want too much more in the way of a northward trend) and the snowfall potential has moved up accordingly. We are still 6 days away from this storm and expectations will change but we could easily get side swiped with another 5-10 inches or do as well as a foot-plus.

More cold weather follows the Tuesday/Wednesday system next week and this cold will make it's initial entrance farther west and will not be as intense across New England in the later part of this holiday week. Nonetheless, it will remain well below normal. In addition, ensembles today indicated with greater certainly that the PDO-induced pattern that has dominated eastern North America and New England in particular will remain. Snowfall potential and outbreaks of cold weather are likely to continue through the weekend of the Feb 21-22 and through the remainder of the month.

I want to thank the individual (Greg) for returning my pass the other day after it apparently fell from my jacket. The whole episode illustrates just what a unique place Mad River Glen is. The liftee noticed my pass was missing and rather than boot me from the line, he simply asked me to get a replacement after doing a run on Paradise. When I returned to the ticket counter, I found that Greg had actually turned the pass in and I continued to enjoy the very powdery conditions with hardly an interruption. This kind of thing just doesn't happen at any mountain but it's the  kind of trust and honesty that prevails at Mad River. Wish it did across the rest of the world. Cheers and thanks Greg !

Mother nature giving the green light to the cold and snowy streak continuing !

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.

Dreamlike at MRG - Bottle this !

It's snowing out of almost everything right now. Even the passage of the most innocent looking disturbance Friday night brought a fluffy dump to the mountain bringing the seasonal total up past 150 inches. And this wasn't even the storm the blog has been all excited about.

Snow stemming from the giant overrunning system began late Saturday. Pull up a radar and you will notice how uninspired this system appears to be, amounting to merely a 200-mile zone of light snow stretching from the northern Great Lakes to interior New England. Though lacking in intensity, it will not lack in continuity. The snow should continue through most of the day Sunday amounting to a few more fluffy inches. By late in the day, a more organized area of low pressure will approach the New Jersey coastline. This will give the snowfall a more organized appearance on radar and we will be on the northern edge of some of the heaviest precipitation associated with this eastward moving system. We should see another 4-8 inches of snowfall between Sunday night and Monday day followed by an additional 1-2 inches Monday night. This would put the total snowfall for this 3-day storm at 8-14 inches. The heaviest snow will fall in a familiar area, northeast Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Incredibly, some of the higher resolution models are spitting out an additional 2 feet of snow in some areas already encased in nearly 50 inches of snow. That's ok though, with the help of Friday nights 8-12 inch surprise, we are doing almost as well.

Dry weather still follows for the middle of the week including a Wednesday that might include temperatures as high as 25 ! A massive late-week jet amplification is still expected with a clipper system being the catalyst. There are no indications right now of any southern branch moisture involvement but the clipper itself could blowup along the northeast coastline. My feeling right now is that if it does this, it does so farther southeast. That being said, we should expect a few inches Thursday into Thursday night.

Certainly no thaw for the President's day weekend holiday or into the week that follows. It's really just a question of how much in the way of storminess can impact the region. At the very least, we should get some help from another clipper system Saturday or Sunday. In the next update, we will spend some more time discussing snow possibilities in this all important weekend and week.

Another round of potential snow late this weekend/early next week gets Stephen King mentioned in the blog

Yeah, perhaps over the last week, the near 50 inches received in portions of the Monadnock region is better than the 30 inches received at MRG. But we have scored big on a few storms that were primarily rain down there and in portions of southern New England in general. My point is, we are situated in a pretty good spot this winter and I have no complaints about the outlook for the next two weeks.


Cold air is now re-entrenched across the region atop widespread deep snowcover stretching from the snowbelts of New York northward to Quebec, eastward to Maine and southward toward the New England coastline. The weakest of disturbances will speed its way through Quebec Friday and spread flurries or very light snow into the region Friday night. The disturbance won't bring too much in the way of accumulating snowfall for Saturday but does mark the advance of more arctic cold. This cold high pressure center will set up shop over Quebec by late in the weekend funneling a fresh supply of  sub 15-degree air over the region. As this is happening, milder air will make a northward push into the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states setting up a very healthy looking baroclinic zone across New York and New England Sunday and Monday.


We had discussed this in the last update but it is worth nothing again. Models had, for several update cycles, allowed the arctic cold to overwhelm the pattern, suppress the storm track to the south thus suggesting a mostly dry and very chilly weekend for MRG and company. Remembering the enduring quote from New England native Stephen King allowed the SCWB to employ some needed skepticism.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on both of us.”

A couple of days later, and the arctic cold appears far less overwhelming, our Sunday/Monday event appears far less suppressed and the forecast is suddenly looking more and more snowy. Surprised ? Not me and probably not many SCWB readers either.


Overunning events resulting from those aforementioned baroclinic regions can be very productive even if they lack a certain "je ne sais quoi" on a weather map. Snow will advance eastward well out ahead of the main area of low pressure and potentially reach the mountain by very late in the day Saturday. Though perhaps lacking in intensity, the snow could be steady for a while and accumulate several inches between Saturday night and Sunday. Models indicate a possible break in the precipitation late in the day Sunday but as the main area of low pressure finally reaches the coast Monday, snow could re-intensify and accumulate several more inches before calling it quits Tuesday. This is potentially a long duration of snowfall and certainly won't be the most intense snowfall rates of the season. In addition, there remains some uncertainty regarding the track and eventual evolution of this conglomeration of weather. The trend however is certainly encouraging and I am personally optimistic of at least 6 more inches and possibly more than a foot over the period beginning late Saturday and ending Tuesday. By the next update on Saturday, I think we can say with greater certainty how we might do. Until then, I will tweet out some quick updates as the information comes in.


Dry weather and a brief period of more comfortable temperatures prevails for the middle of the week. Readings might actually climb above 20 for a few days, something we have yet to achieve the first 5 days of the month. A serious looking, polar induced jet amplification takes New England by storm later in the week. We know if will bring another brutal round of cold for late Thursday but can the associated clipper system grab a hold of anything in the southern branch of the jet and spin something interesting up ? Given some long odds (5-1 or 4-1), I certainly wouldn't bet against it.


The cold weather late next week should continue through the weekend, likely reinforced once before the president's day. After that, there are all kinds of signs of storminess in that long holiday week. Now for the disclaimer. This is two weeks out and I understand lots of folks eye this period for skiing given the nature of school holidays and such. It looks very encouraging this week but the long range ensembles, which show a continuation of many of the same features that have driven the recent success such as a large western upper ridge and a negative, anti evil empire EPO have been less than accurate. Many of the models have struggled to hit the mark 4-5 days out so two weeks is a lot to ask.

A long and winding update full of optimism !

One of the crazier weeks of weather I have seen across New England as a whole and MRG has not been left out. We have been "bringin it" this winter and I think we will continue to do so through the remainder of this month and perhaps even through a good part of March. A lot of New England weather nuts are born out of week's of intrigue such as this and I have certainly done a lot of thinking as to how we got here (though I hardly have had the time to that since it's been so challenging keeping up with all the changes).


Our recent run of success and expected continued success is a result of many things, but two in particular that are noteworthy. The first we have discussed a few times already - The sea surface temperatures in the mid-latitude Pacific and PDO (The Pacific Decadal Oscillation). The PDO has soared to one of it's biggest positive indices in recorded history (which is a little over a century). One of the key drivers of this high index is an area of relative sea surface temperature warmth in the Pacific that hugs the west coast from the Gulf of Alaska south to the Pacific Northwest. This has made it especially difficult to break down any upper level ridge positioned in that particular region and even more difficult for any long wave trough to position itself there for any significant length of time. It all amounts to very good news on our side of the continent since a upper ridge over there usually means an upper trough over here. Most importantly, it substantially reduces the risk for a thaw, something we have not seen this past January for a change. The second is counter-intuitive but something I have spent some time thinking about the past week. Most east coast weather enthusiasts associate a "negative" NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) with snow and cold and there are good reasons for this. During the heart of winter however, a negative AO and especially NAO combination can but a tremendous weight on the winter jet stream, suppressing the storm track and leaving northern New England high and dry. There is no doubt the traditional negative NAO is a productive variable for snow and cold in the Mid-Atlantic section of the east coast but I would hesitate to categorically say that regarding New England, particularly northern New England. Perhaps a different set of variable combinations and this would be true and if one is to remove a persistent western upper ridge in the jet stream and we are having a different conversation. In 2014-2015, the NAO has been persistently positive and is expected to continue to be positive. The storm track has not been forced southward even when models advertise such and the Mid-Atlantic has almost entirely missed out on all of the snow that has fallen on New England. This is one of the biggest reasons I removed the "favorability index" from the blog this year. The whole idea of "favorable" is difficult to quantify and the point is underscored with this seasons weather.


Moving back to the day-to-day, it's been a snowy time for us in VT but a cold time. We haven't seen too many days where the temperature has gotten past 10 in the last ten days. We should see more of this over the next 5 days or so ahead of moderating temperatures later next week. In the short term, a clipper system is going to try and grab ahold of some southern branch energy on Wednesday as it advances toward the east coast. A couple of runs of the European suggested that we might spin something up out of all this leading to more significant snowfall Thursday. Given the recent run of weather, one can't completely discount that possibility though models today have driven most of the action off shore. Still, very fluffy light snow beginning early Wednesday and ending early Thursday will amount to 3-6 inches and provide a nice topping to the 2 feet we have received over the last 10 days.


More very cold weather follows for Thursday into Thursday night including readings down near -15 Friday morning. By Saturday, temperatures bounce back into the teens as a weaker clipper approaches and brings some very light snow back to the region. Sunday is then very cold again as we get sent a direct shot of arctic chill out of Quebec.


The storm we are all watching now would occur in the early part of next week. The tangent I went on a few paragraphs ago might be apropos for this situation. A vigorous looking system is expected to drop out of British Columbia and amplify the entire pattern across eastern North America by Monday. The system will bring snow to the Midwest before attacking the Eastern Seaboard. The nature in which it does so is the question. Will the storm get suppressed as some of the models have indicated or can it get just a little kick from a receding polar jet and produce another round of fireworks across New England. Model consensus suggests more in the way of the suppression but it has not been a good year to bet on that so I would not count this storm out at all.


Temperatures are expected to finally moderate, perhaps even reaching above normal levels for a few days during the middle of next week. It won't last long however since the pattern will be unable to completely eliminate the western upper ridge and thus the pattern will revert back to a chilly one by President's day weekend. More snow is also possible around the time of the 13th-14th of the month as the pattern re-amplifies.

Another day, another update and another upgrade !!

All the updates are keeping the SCWB very busy this season but for the most part, it hasn't been a bad thing. Our Monday storm is conforming to all of our wishes from a few days ago. It's stronger, it's farther north and much of Vermont will be in the sweet spot for a Monday powder-fest as a result. The storm is outperforming expectations across much of the Midwest and I expect this trend to continue across interior New England. Snow should begin right around daybreak and continue at a moderate to occasionally heavy rate through much of the day. The storm will proceed quickly eastward along the southern New England coastline and be offshore Monday evening. Snow will taper to flurries late in the evening and give way to a very chilly Monday night and Tuesday. Temperatures will struggle to get above zero on the mountain Monday and if it weren't for a stiff northeasterly wind, the snow would be very fluffy. The wind could keep the snow a bit more condensed however and I think snow totals will be in the 10-15 inch category.

Clipper system Wednesday should provide a nice little follow up as well after the chilly day Tuesday. Snowfall late in the day Wednesday could add another 2-5 inches before a reenforcing shot of chill arrives for late in the week.