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1/18 - 19 Storm Discussion Thread

billski

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What a mess. Heavy rain for several hours after almost 8" of snow. My driveway has an inch of ice on it. Time to get some more ice melt.

I swear we have more natural snow down here than up north, and I've driven the whole way south to north and back again over the last four days. I have a sedan and the road snowplow piles are halfway up my windows. Street corner piles are at least 6 feet high. Creepy crawly driving around here. They salted it to death. Now you can only skate in my driveway.
 

jaywbigred

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Fallout wise, I am thinking of bagging it for a Poconos trip tonight or tomorrow night. I assume they got a good amount of ice and that the bumps will be less than fun. Plus, tomorrow night, it looks like the drive home could be hairy.

Anyone care to weigh in on that?
 

4aprice

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Fallout wise, I am thinking of bagging it for a Poconos trip tonight or tomorrow night. I assume they got a good amount of ice and that the bumps will be less than fun. Plus, tomorrow night, it looks like the drive home could be hairy.

Anyone care to weigh in on that?

Jay:

Rocket at Camelback is closed today. I assume because of icy conditions. As soon as the temps drop expect them to condition it. If the forecast comes to fruition should be ok by the weekend.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
 

abc

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billski

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Looks like Burke (and Okemo) stood out with 8-9". MRG didn't do too poorly either.

Too bad Magic got crust on their powder. Interesting actually, it's what, 15 miles from Okemo?

Oddly, Eric at MRG reports some sleet on the web, but that didn't make it into the snow report. Not sure how he did that, but he's one of the most transparent reporters out there.

"We got a little more icing on the cake last night! Mother Nature slapped about 5 inches of sugary snow on the mountain and the skiing should be really sweet! The snow changed over to sleet briefly late last night, squishing our total down, but this new layer of snow is exactly what we need. It should stick to the thin spots and give us a much more consistent base. There should be some fun powder turns out there, plus the groomers are looking really good! Currently temps are in the mid twenties..."
 

abc

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Oddly, Eric at MRG reports some sleet on the web, but that didn't make it into the snow report. Not sure how he did that, but he's one of the most transparent reporters out there.

"We got a little more icing on the cake last night! Mother Nature slapped about 5 inches of sugary snow on the mountain and the skiing should be really sweet! The snow changed over to sleet briefly late last night, squishing our total down, but this new layer of snow is exactly what we need. It should stick to the thin spots and give us a much more consistent base. There should be some fun powder turns out there, plus the groomers are looking really good! Currently temps are in the mid twenties..."
I always thought sleet is less of a problem than ice (freezing rain). A little bit of sleet mixed in the powder won't get noticed quite as much as "icing on the cake", which ONLY a groomer could break.
 

psyflyer

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Overnight and during the day we got an extra 3-6 inches. This storm that was supposed to miss us generated 1 to 1.5 feet of snow, awesome. We rode all day and the mountain is in great shape, better than at any point last season in my opinion. Glades are doing great and there was plenty of untracked powder to go around today (most of the day untracked the whole way in glades, for the second day!). Powder in the ungroomed and glades should hold up well into the week-end and be enough for everyone to enjoy. These past two days at Burke have been memorable and a ton of fun.

Edit: We never did change over to freezing rain, but the snow became heavier. The snow was not sticky at all and on top of the foot of fluffy powder it made it just fine.
 
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riverc0il

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We had a change over here in Ashland and some slight compaction but no loss to speak of. Snow depths are now about as high as I have seen them since moving here. Snow shoeing with the dog was a hoot. The surface is wet snow, no crust, and slight less dense snow under what fell that was there previously. I suspect northern areas probably faired even better. Not sure if elevation was a factor, were there any inversions? There was the day before it snowed, I think? I like that Burke got a lot, that is good. Top of the green mountain spin didn't get much at all. But they are getting some on the back end now. Smuggs is finally 100% with Robin's Run open, that trails is one of the most boney rockey sketchy trails around.

GAME ON
 

Masskier

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Overnight and during the day we got an extra 3-6 inches. This storm that was supposed to miss us generated 1 to 1.5 feet of snow, awesome. We rode all day and the mountain is in great shape, better than at any point last season in my opinion. Glades are doing great and there was plenty of untracked powder to go around today (most of the day untracked the whole way in glades, for the second day!). Powder in the ungroomed and glades should hold up well into the week-end and be enough for everyone to enjoy. These past two days at Burke have been memorable and a ton of fun.

Edit: We never did change over to freezing rain, but the snow became heavier. The snow was not sticky at all and on top of the foot of fluffy powder it made it just fine.

Sounds like an epic day. heading up tomorrow and looking forward to skiing pow on Friday. Save some lines for me.
 

awf170

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Yep. Like I said, base elevations are almost the same...

More mixing at the Magic base was a result of latitude, and the freeszing rain line probably falling somewhere between Magic and Okemo almost directly to the north.

Freezing rain and sleet are caused by upper level warm air. The snow melts then freezes again before reaching the surface. So elevation usually doesn't matter. So Greg is correct.

Another reason could be heavier precip. Heavy precip can cool the atmosphere enough to keep it all snow when if it was lighter precip it would turn to rain/sleet.
 
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