Having not had the opportunity to know her, I don't consider myself a very qualified person to give a Betsy Pratt tribute, but I've always enjoyed hearing about her from those who do know and I also love a good history lesson, especially about places I care about. This film "Spirit of a Classsic", made by Rick Moulton in 1988 is just amazing. I can't believe some of the footage and interviews in this feature which include folks who actually cut trails, built the original towers and made Mad River Glen of the most distinctive ski destinations around. And of course, there's some terrific stuff from Betsy Pratt herself.
We still have some winter weather in the outlook and a lot of snow on the ground, but with that said, I am not in love with the storm this weekend as far as big snow goes. More on that in a minute. In the mean time we have cooler temperatures and a pretty solid freeze coming for Friday morning. Temperatures will warm Friday thanks to some sunshine, but only to around 40 and lower than that above 2500 feet. Saturday morning is expected to be even colder, maybe some teens before some early sunshine again pushes readings up just past the freezing mark by late morning. Most of Saturday except for a few hours in the morning will feature cloudiness and some snowfall is expected to arrive just as the ski day is winding down. This is a storm that will be initially tracking toward the eastern Great Lakes before making a last second transition to the New England coastline. This setup, especially being late in the winter season, is pushing marginal temps into northern Vermont both at the surface and aloft. At skiing elevations I think this initial burst of moisture falls as some snow with a bit of sleet mixed in. Later in the evening and into the over night we should see a mix of lighter sleet and snow change to all snow before ending as snow showers later in the day Sunday. A 2-5 inch, dense, snow/sleet conglomeration is my initial guess on accumulation. The snow showers on Sunday could yield a small additional accumulation but this activity looks better from Stowe northward based on wind trajectories.
Much of next week has moved in a colder direction as of this update but the big question relates to a potential storm in the Tuesday to Wednesday time frame. It's a promising setup but a closer examination of the last two rounds of ensemble data are showing this jet amplification to max out farther south and east taking much of the storminess out over the ocean. The Canadian model was still showing a big storm over interior New England as of Thursday afternoon but its own ensembles did not validate this scenario so I am fearful the trend toward a nothing-burger could get legitimized over the next few days. The way this month has gone though, never say never ! The late season chill looks more legit in spite of the drier outlook. Much the Tuesday to Thursday time frame looks sub-freezing, at least on the mountain and we could certainly squeeze lighter accumulations of snowfall into this outlook even if a bigger storm doesn't materialize.
The ensembles also moved toward a colder, stormy and tumultuous start to April with a likelihood of more winter weather. Good excuse to reiterate what I think will be an accurate prediction from Midstation Single guru Brian Aust of a "proper April closing date" !
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