Don't Lose Heart, Snowlovers...

[Orsonab]

Pinched this link from a ski forum:
http://headlines.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&article=5

It's a long-range forecast for the next couple of weeks - looks stormy...and cold!

 

[blacknblue]

In the meanwhile, we just broke our record high temps for the day.... by 14 degrees. I'm too depressed to even make lemonade.

 

[Mattl]

We have a small shot of cold coming in behind the monday storm until about thursday it may get near normal for once. Then we have another ridge over the east and more record warmth...Winter is absent for another 1 to 2 weeks after that possibly. It was 56 degrees at Zealand hut yesterday. In Lebanon it is near 70 today..give me a break. I just feel sad that the small snowpack is all dissapearing for the Whites. -Mattl

 

[grouseking]

Unless you live in the upper midwest, or out west, our winter is completley on hold for the time being. This ACCU-weather thing has nothing to do with our weather. The jet stream is oriented in a southwest-northeast fashion and keeps bringing in warmer air to the region. This today is some of the warmest air I've ever seen, and there have even been some severe thunderstorms. Every time the jet slips south to try to introduce cold air, it keep bouncing back north. If we had actually recieved a snow cover this year, the cold bouts would be a little colder, but nothing is established so its like we are trying to establish a snow pack in October or early November. This reminds me of El Nino 1998 where we would get storms passing off the coast and everyone would still get rain...even the mountains. There is just an absence of cold air and there is nothing that shows it changing drastically in the near future.

It hasn't been all bad for the northern mtns. They have been getting snow, but they are having a tough time keeping it. And I think ski areas are suffering.

We need to establish a trough in the east, pool some cold air, get a storm up here and go from there. But until then expect days like today to be possible from time to time.

grouseking

 

[TDawg]

And I think ski areas are suffering.

To say the least. I was in a t-shirt at Loon today, in JANUARY. It's unreal, the slopes are pretty much in shambles. Snow cover sucks...

 

[Rick]

Think positive - There may be a lot of winter gear on closeout this spring!!!

 

[Mongoose]

This winter is making me think of getting a giant walk in freezer...

 

[weatherman]

This may be "wishcasting" a bit, but I really think we are going to get whomped in about 2-3 weeks. Maybe only temporarily, but there is some butt-cold air that's been waiting patiently to cross the pole from Siberia, and sooner or later it will leak South. The warm ocean and temperature difference from North to South will only enhance any storms that form when it does come.
Good thing I don't forecast for a living. Just my $.01.
Weatherman

 

[grouseking]

This may be "wishcasting" a bit, but I really think we are going to get whomped in about 2-3 weeks. Maybe only temporarily, but there is some butt-cold air that's been waiting patiently to cross the pole from Siberia, and sooner or later it will leak South. The warm ocean and temperature difference from North to South will only enhance any storms that form when it does come.
Good thing I don't forecast for a living. Just my $.01.
Weatherman

Let's hope. Things have a way of balancing themselves out, so maybe it will get better. All I know is the storm is going to change to rain again tomorrow and the temps will be above normal all week. And then it gets warmer for the weekend. Hopefully the cold air that computer models are hinting at will make its way south. We need it bad.

grouseking

 

[Quietman]

You know that as much as we hikers want and love the snow, thousands of employees and employers across the north east are waiting for a lot of help! We may bemone the lack of white stuff, but others are litterly losing their shirts. Ski areas, snowmobile clubs, ice fishers, and those that depend on snow and cold for their income, must be *#&@*ing bricks.
While we hope for great savings on clearance because of the glut of winter gear, how many retailers, and ski areas will be around to provide competition next year. The cold air may be coming in the next few weeks. But the damage may be too much to recover from. Let's hope not. I'll still be wearing my shorts in protest, until I can walk on snow.

Before we complain about our personal lack of cold weather, let's try to understand the big picture. Crotched mtn in S. NH spent millions in upgrades before this season. They're payback is sucking wind so far, and a bunch of employees are sitting at home....

 

[Orsonab]

Quietman - you're quite right, of course. A lack of snow is disappointing for us but to others it's their paycheck. Driving around in the Whites yesterday I passed a lot of snowmobile rental places, cross-country ski areas, etc - all of them ghostly quiet. I really hope the family-run ski resorts in particular like King Pine, Pats Peak, etc survive this horrible season.

I also saw in yesterday's paper that NH tax revenue from liquor, cigarettes and hotels was way down from this time last year due to the lack of skiers coming up, staying and then filling their cars with booze and cigs. Bad news all 'round....

 

[Quietman]

Orsonab,

Just after reading your reply I read this.

MSNBC Where's the snow?

Really scarey. And the rain keeps coming.

 

[gaiagirl]

Everything is ghostly quiet in the Valley. During the holiday weekend LLBean was quite busy because people had come up but the skiing was pretty bad so they shopped instead. At this point, they just aren't coming up here at all, to ski, go tubing, shopping, or anything else. It's not looking like a promising winter. 2 inches of very wet snow this morning and now it's raining and is supposed to get up into the 40s during the day. What a shame.

 

[skiguy]

Before we complain about our personal lack of cold weather, let's try to understand the big picture. Crotched mtn in S. NH spent millions in upgrades before this season. They're payback is sucking wind so far, and a bunch of employees are sitting at home....

The folks at Mad River Glen are not too psyched either. This year alot of money has been spent on rehabilitating the Single Chair. This is no large Corporation either...it's actually a Coop Let's hope everybody in the Outdoor Industry can salvage what's left or to come of Winter. A year like this can have a rippling effect that can carry over into future seasons which usuallly means bigger costs for all of us.

 

[grouseking]

Thankfully, this latest storm has brought snow to our mountains. As of 8am, a general 4-5 inches fell at the huts according to the observations and its still near or slightly below freezing at most levels. I bet many areas picked up a healthy 6-10 wet sloppy inches of snow, which is better than nothing I suppose. We are getting colder this week and then just in time for the weekend, it warms up out ahead of out next storm .

Then next week our pattern does a 180. Keep fingers crossed.

In the meantime I wanted to share a couple interesting things from meteorolgist Todd Gross's website. There is a pic of a cherry tree in full bloom . This is absolutely amazing.

Also, this comes from an observer who lives in Shrewsbury, Ma, also from toddgross.com.

"I live on the edge of a marsh in Shrewsbury, Ma, and last night
thought I heard a few short peeps late at night and thought " no way".
This evening my "no way" was realized. The spring peepers were out.
I've lived by this marsh for 38 years and the earliest I've ever heard
them before was March 1st. There were also honey bees out, and last
November 20th I removed 5 green frogs from my goldfish pond. This is
not good.

While others are loving this, if my apple, peach and pear trees
flower, my crop's lost when the freeze eventually comes. If this happens
to all the orchards here, there's no fruit harvest, no apple picking.
And if the spring peepers mate and lay their eggs, the eggs will be lost
when the cold weather comes and freezes the water. They will be killed,
and I'm not sure how long a spring peeper lives. And the bees, there's
been a terrible problem with mites killing whole colonies, and I'm
pretty sure the mite die in winter, usually.

I haven't heard any of the other meteorologist even come close to
thinking of these things, mostly chattering off as if this is a good
thing. Having thought of this, I 'd thought of writing to you with these
observation and thoughts. Today it was 72 here where I live, in a
protected area where it's usually a bit warmer. I find this frightening
and am not one to think global warming a good thing.

I hope you find this interesting, and maybe you might pass the
problem these warm days are going to bring us several months away."

http://www.toddgross.com/ where i got this from...

I also had something posted on the website and its below the peeper story.

We really need to pray for winter to come back, and hope that the animals are ok. This goes beyond our being inconvienced with bad hiking weather.

grouseking

 

[Quietman]

Great points Grouseking.
I really wish that more media was focused on the negative affects of this rather than saying' "isn't it beautiful."

I am interested if tree sprouts and flowers that get frozen now, will resprout when the real spring arrives(hopefully in April or May). Leaves that are eaten by bugs early in the year will sometimes regrow that year.
Any botanists know the answer to this?

I also like the Todd Gross site, guess he was too seroius for channel 7.

I hope the predicted pattern change really happens this time!!