Quote:
Originally Posted by awf170  How do they make these maps anyway? That thing is so wrong that is basically useless you just want to see a super vague overview of how much snow NE has as a whole. If you actually want to see how much snow a specific ski area has it is very close to useless. |
Au contraire... Almost every collection center is located in a valley or acessible area. It is good as general indication of snow fall and snowpack in the valleys. It's used primarily by the hydrology scientists to predict floods, droughts, etc.
A great example is Stowe. there is 36" in the valley and 85" at the Mansfield stake. Knowing a little historical precip trends helps extrapolate how the snowpack may be.
As you suggest, highpeaks forecasts are far and few between. Partly because so few people are affected by or interested in them. that's why forecasts from Scott and the guru at MRG are so important. They are skiers and are looking for something different. But that's also why I use maps like this, to get a sense of things.
You have to look at a lot more data than just this make before making an assessment. Temps, trends, precip type and history, etc. And that's just the historical data. I use it a lot. It's particularly useful for spring skiing.