Thursday December 15 Weather Looks Like No Help To Early Season Doldrums

[gostan]

This Afternoon: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Calm wind.

Tonight: A chance of rain, snow, and sleet before 4am, then sleet, possibly mixed with rain. Low around 31. South wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 14 and 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Thursday: Rain, mainly before 4pm. High near 45. Breezy, with a south wind between 21 and 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Thursday Night: A chance of rain. Cloudy, with a low around 35. Southwest wind between 11 and 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Friday: A chance of rain, possibly mixing with snow after 2pm, then gradually ending. Partly sunny, with a high near 38. Breezy, with a west wind between 18 and 23 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Hopefully, this possible 1/2 inch +/- of rain will not further exacerbate the current trail count/conditions. Let's hope that enough snow has been made to keep what is currently open both safe & open for this weekend. And, of course, ME opens as well!

[klop]

It's not the rain and 45 that hurts as much as the low in the teens Friday and Saturday. That should "set up" things pretty well.

[win]

It groomed out reasonablly well. It was a bit thin and chunky but much better than I feared seeing the rain last evening. We let in dry out overnight and groomed early in the AM. We are resurfacing parts of Jester, Allyn's Traverse and Downspout and will groom them tonight. Also blowing on Upper Organgrinder to try to get it open tomorrow sometime.

[gostan]

It groomed out reasonablly well. It was a bit thin and chunky but much better than I feared seeing the rain last evening. We let in dry out overnight and groomed early in the AM. We are resurfacing parts of Jester, Allyn's Traverse and Downspout and will groom them tonight. Also blowing on Upper Organgrinder to try to get it open tomorrow sometime.

Win, that is pretty good news. I am looking forward to getting back out skiing today.

[win]

Nice to see you Gostan. Hope you had a good day on the mountain.

[gostan]

Nice to see you Gostan. Hope you had a good day on the mountain.

Same here Win. Considering the weather of the past week, mountain ops really whipped the open trails into very decent conditions.

[win]

I think you saw what we can do when the temperatures get cold. We had a great night of snowmaking with guns running on Downpout, Gondolier, Pushover, Easy Rider, Lower Hot Shot, Sugar Bear Forest, Rim Run, Looking Good and Inverness. At one point in the day we had 155 guns blowing and were using our maximum water. Today, we only had to use two of the three compressors at LP to max the water flow. That is what I have been trying to explain about the new guns. When ASC brought in the diesels they were using old guns requiring a lot more air than the more efficient tower and snowlogics that we now use. If we could get a week of temperatures like last night and today, we would be rocking. We should have a good night tonight, but it is going to warm up again this week, and we will likely have to focus up high again midweek. And, Wednesday looks right now to be an unceratain day that could bring rain or snow or a combination. However, the trend is better than it has been and with some luck we might even start seeing the "free" snow falling.

[Yard Sale]

Grinder was delicious yesterday. My compliments to the chef.

[Hawk]

Ahh, smooth Velveteen snow this weekend for me. Glad I got that out of my system. ....and I hope you all had as much fun as I did. It's always fun to see the old friends and get a few runs at the old stomping grounds. I can't wait to be off for 10 days. Good bad or indifferent, I will be up for the majority of next week. Hope the next warm spell is short lived.

[HowieT2]

I think you saw what we can do when the temperatures get cold. We had a great night of snowmaking with guns running on Downpout, Gondolier, Pushover, Easy Rider, Lower Hot Shot, Sugar Bear Forest, Rim Run, Looking Good and Inverness. At one point in the day we had 155 guns blowing and were using our maximum water. Today, we only had to use two of the three compressors at LP to max the water flow. That is what I have been trying to explain about the new guns. When ASC brought in the diesels they were using old guns requiring a lot more air than the more efficient tower and snowlogics that we now use. If we could get a week of temperatures like last night and today, we would be rocking. We should have a good night tonight, but it is going to warm up again this week, and we will likely have to focus up high again midweek. And, Wednesday looks right now to be an unceratain day that could bring rain or snow or a combination. However, the trend is better than it has been and with some luck we might even start seeing the "free" snow falling.

sounds enthusiastic about the performance of the new guns in cold temps.

[win]

Some hope:

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weathe...nowstorm/59236

[sglatham]

NO JINX'S PLEASE!! Accuweather had a map last week for this coming Wednesday that showed snow in VT, and it doesn't look like snow is coming with this next storm. That said, all the guys on the Accuweather "Pro" site are bulllish on the pattern once this first storm moves through. Lets hope we get it - we deserve it BIG TIME! THINK SNOW!!!

[HowieT2]

No whammies!
uplsope tonight FTW!

[Nick Danger]

I think you saw what we can do when the temperatures get cold. We had a great night of snowmaking with guns running on Downpout, Gondolier, Pushover, Easy Rider, Lower Hot Shot, Sugar Bear Forest, Rim Run, Looking Good and Inverness. At one point in the day we had 155 guns blowing and were using our maximum water. Today, we only had to use two of the three compressors at LP to max the water flow. That is what I have been trying to explain about the new guns. When ASC brought in the diesels they were using old guns requiring a lot more air than the more efficient tower and snowlogics that we now use. If we could get a week of temperatures like last night and today, we would be rocking. We should have a good night tonight, but it is going to warm up again this week, and we will likely have to focus up high again midweek. And, Wednesday looks right now to be an unceratain day that could bring rain or snow or a combination. However, the trend is better than it has been and with some luck we might even start seeing the "free" snow falling.

One advantage not mentioned about the ASC diesels is that they didn't get shut down by Green Mountain Power every time it's cold enough to make good snow. I know this doesn't always happen but it seems pretty common.

[noski]

Everyone just look away, act all innocent and nonchalantly whistle some harmless little Christmas song....you know, like "Let it Snow". If we don't get too excited about it, it may just happen. *whistle, whistle*