Just how good was skiing in the NE this year?

I would think Mt Snow's average would be more like 200.

NY snowfall was below average, but the season was definitely above average. Gore did 115 inches on a average of 150.

dlague said:

You need to ski in MA.

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I'll be getting a pass to Wachusett next season to get in days after work or the random big dumps during the week when its "too dangerous to get to work" :lol:

It's still great!

Posted recently by Tony Crocker on FirstTracks, seems like a pretty amazing NO RAIN stretch for Stowe this winter:

"just got the Mansfield Stake daily logs.

The stretch with no rain was from January 5 - April 9. The average temperatures for February were high 7F, low -9F. Both of these might be records.

The disparity in snowfall between the Mansfield Stake and the Stowe ski area (measured by powderfreak) is huge this year: 183.9 inches vs. 290 inches."

so wait the snowstake on Mount Mansfield which is at the top of Stowe Ski Resort, had 107 more inches of snow? I don't get how that is possible... I can certainly understand a difference but not more than 100 inches difference.

Can you post a link?

jimmywilson69 said:

so wait the snowstake on Mount Mansfield which is at the top of Stowe Ski Resort, had 107 more inches of snow? I don't get how that is possible... I can certainly understand a difference but not more than 100 inches difference.

Can you post a link?

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reverse that statement. Stowe said it had 290" and the snow stake wa the lower value.

Okay I believe that the ski area would inflate their numbers, but again 100" is a lot
Especially when there is an easy way to double check their math right on the same mountain

Maybe the top was more wind blown and Stowe benefited from it?

The Mansfield snow stake is in a very wind sheltered area below the Nose

deadheadskier said:

The Mansfield snow stake is in a very wind sheltered area below the Nose

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I thought the "Mansfield snow stake" was just that...A stake in the ground which measures the snow depth (and not the accumulated snow for the year)....so its apples & oranges comparing to the Stowe season total ??

It is a stake in the ground, but I believe it is checked daily for accumulations.

Measurement at the stake is "settled snow"

Someone can look it up, but I'm pretty certain the measurement techniques at the stake are a lot more accurate and indicative of the truth than the marketing departments methods.

MRG has a stake too. It's nestled in the woods along the top traverse going over to Antelope. When I was there in April the stake still read over 4ft. meanwhile the bottom of the mountain was nearly washed out. The mountain closed a few days after my visit.

jimmywilson69 said:

Okay I believe that the ski area would inflate their numbers, but again 100" is a lot
Especially when there is an easy way to double check their math right on the same mountain

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deadheadskier said:

Someone can look it up, but I'm pretty certain the measurement techniques at the stake are a lot more accurate and indicative of the truth than the marketing departments methods.

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Unfortunately the measurements for new snowfall at the co-op station on Mt. Mansfield aren’t made at the Mt. Mansfield Stake, which is in a sheltered location at ~3,700’ on the leeward side of the mountain where people ski. The daily snowpack depth is measured there, and is very reliable, but the daily measurements of new snowfall for the co-op station are made (or one might argue attempted) up on the ridgeline at the radio towers around 4,000’ by the telecommunications engineers that work up there. A lot of the snow that falls up there is simply not caught in their collection canister because of the strong winds, so the only thing the snowfall reported by the co-op is good for is a rough relative comparison from year to year. It’s obvious that the system is deficient when you see days where the new snowfall reported by the co-op site is actually less than the resulting increase in the depth of snow at the Mt. Mansfield Stake.

Snowfall for the ski area (Stowe) is rigorously monitored by Powderfreak inside the resort boundary from a special plot at ~3,000’, which like the location of the Mt. Mansfield Stake, is not really affected by winds. Being aware of the perceived bias in snowfall reporting from ski resorts, Powderfreak takes photos of each day’s snowfall at the measurement sites (he has another location at the base of the mountain near Route 108 to report base elevation snowfall for the snowfall range). He also underreports snowfall if it is in doubt in any way – this is typically done when he has to send out his very early morning report around 5:00 or 6:00 A.M., and the only assessments for upper mountain snowfall he has are from the snowcat drivers who are up on the mountain. Once the lifts are running and he can get up to check the official 3,000’ reporting station, he’ll revise the number (typically upward) to the actual snowfall. Powderfreak is highly-experienced, extremely meticulous, and exceedingly conservative with respect to measuring snowfall (for those that are interested, he reports throughout the season in the ski thread in the New England Regional Forum at American Weather), so when the season totals come in from Stowe, you know that the mountain got at least as much as the number indicates.

Indeed snowfall this season was a bit below average for the Northern Vermont ski areas, probably around the 90% mark in general. I closely monitor the snowfall at our site in the Winooski Valley along the spine of the Northern Greens, and our snowfall typically tracks quite closely with the local ski resorts in terms percentage. This season our snowfall came in at 91.6% of average. Although overall snowfall was on the low side, snow preservation was better than average this season as others have noted in this thread. Unfortunately, the excessive cold was a detractor this season, and I highlighted various other negative aspects in a post at First Tracks Online. So on balance, the ski experience was about average for the Northern Greens and for a letter grade I’d give it a C. I could certainly lean toward C+ as well though because of the prolonged consistency in the snow surfaces and decent April skiing that occurred subsequent to my initial assessment.

The stake measures settled snow, not snowfall. The proper way to measure snowfall is every 6 hours. So you can have a foot of snowfall that results in a 2" increase in settled snow depth. I follow PF's reports on americanwx and they are as accurate as possible and he errs on the side of conservative.