Snow? — Where You Are

[stripperguy]

As I sit here n the town of colonie (upstate NY Albany county) there is little outside to tell me it is a winter.
We’ve had 24” total to date, normal is 37”, but the thaws have removed everything.
I’m a back country skier, so I NEED natural snow, my favorite BC ski spot is a closed for 40 years former downhill area, Petersburg Pass. I’ve skied it three times this season, 24” of powder before Christmas, 9” of powder over ice in early January and recently 15” of good powder. Some years I have skied it 15 times by now. Lacking are the multiple nor’easters that we typically have all season long.
Disappointing for sure. As a youth, whatever snow fell in november would still be on the ground in April, not any more, sadly.

 

[Benson Gray]

The site linked below can be helpful if you are planning a paddling trip and want to check on the streamflow conditions. This doesn't address the snowpack question originally posed in this thread but it can be helpful once things start to melt.

Benson

USGS Current Water Data for the Nation

 

[Crazy Trout Craft (CTC)]

Here in my part of central NYS, we've essentially had very little snow. My guess is our region has seen less than a foot in total accumulation. Rain, on the other hand, we've had plenty of; especially during January. The first month of the year gave us more days of rain and overcast skies than any I can remember. This winter I've only been out on my xc skis a total of four times; far below the norm.

To give you an idea of how winterless we've been, this morning the tom turkey that lives on the hillside across from our house started gobbling. This is the earliest I've ever heard them looking for a mate.

In spite of the lack of snow, our water table remains high due to all the rain we've had. All our streams are running at normal, or just above, normal levels for this time of the year. That's probably the only bright spot for having so little snow.

Winter, o' winter...where have you gone???

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

I concur… also in CNY…. I’m heartbroken with the warm temps and no snow… I enjoy winter trekking… makes me appreciate each season and what it has to offer… but in the meantime I will continue my work in my w/c canoe to be ready for an early canoe season.… so I’m good with that

 

[Crazy Trout Craft (CTC)]

I am in Lake Effect snowcountry, on the Tug Hill Plateau and nearby region, to the east of Lake Ontario in NY state. We had a good 4' snow dump in November which mostly melted shortly after with warmth and rain. Then another 4 foot dump on us at Christmas. I have a small hunting camp I inherited from my dad located at the typical heaviest lake effect snow epicenter on Tug Hill. It is two miles away from the closest parking area, so I ski into it, half way on an unplowed dirt road turned to popular snowmobile trail with the idiots roaring by me at 70+ mph. Extreme caution is necessary on my part to safely get out of the way until I can head off trail across a beaver meadow into the woods to my camp. Most winters I get nervous enough about the levels of snowfalls to need to go in there 2 or 3 times to shovel the roof. Unless things change radically over the next few weeks, it looks like I may get away with only going in one time this season. My home is 15 crow fly miles away with only slightly less overall snowfall here. Lots of ups and downs this season so far, rain-snnow-melt-rain-snow. Currently I have about 8 inches of crusty snow depth in open fields and the woods.
View attachment 134649

Beautiful camp

 

[billconner]

I stopped to take a couple of pictures. Perch River. Usually 8-10' and barely enough water to float.

 

[memaquay]

I am a member of a Citizens Advisory Group to the Forestry industry, and they keep track of snow and such. Here is a comparison of Geraldton snow loads for the last few years.

 

[Halpc]

I have about 4 feet (settled depth) in my front yard now. This winter has been a welcome reprieve from the ongoing drought in the west. Colder than normal though, with high temperatures below freezing for 3-4 straight weeks and a low of -18 F one night. Alta, 10 miles southwest of here, has had 502” already this year and the ski area has over an 11 foot base currently- should be good spring skiing and hopefully water in the rivers this year.

 

[Alasgun]

@memaquay, that chart looks a lot like this fire stirring stick i keep over by the burn barrel.
I’m calling it “Old man winter” and i hope it’s symbolic.

 

[Gerald]

This photo was taken after the first snow here this winter. . We got about 40 inches. Finally, found the Subie after the driveway was cleared.
A week later it was all gone. We got snow since then but more and more winter rain seems to be in our future.
Gerald

 

[scratchypants]

"Stratospheric Polar Vortex" - check out this video:

It isn't over yet - could be a late Spring...

 

[GeoBoy]

Snow is just about gone here, 64 degrees yesterday, new record high in Albany, NY.

 

[clemency]

"Stratospheric Polar Vortex" - check out this video:

It isn't over yet - could be a late Spring...

This would probably be bad. I think a number of species will be confused by the current weather pattern, and wind up being in places they probably shouldn't be. Bears out of hibernation, migratory birds, etc.

 

[billconner]

.....humans out paddling.

 

[Bob B.]

Turkey gobbling on the ridge this morning ... in Mid February.

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

Ice melted on the lake near me last night. Guys were out ice fishing last weekend. Usually ice out is late March. Odd year for sure.

 

[lowangle al]

Pa. had a good two weeks of winter late December. Since then it’s been the “January thaw”. It’s lasted over six weeks, with a short break for an arctic blast.

Anchorage on the other hand has had over 85 inches. That’s measured at sea level at the airport. My house at 1200’ usually gets twice that. We love the snow, it’s one of the reasons we’re still on Ak.

 

[yknpdlr]

Now I don't personally go all the way back to 1939, but I well remember growing up in the 1960's and still seeing in the 70's snowplows like this on the road where I grew up on the Tug Hill Plateeau of NY state. The snow was so deep that the bigest Oshkosh plows would ram the drifts crossing the road, come to a dead stop, back up, and "buck" it again as they called it. Then later they got the big rotary snowblowers with input augers taller than a tall man. There were cases when cars were totally buried on the side of the road geetting crunched and severely damaged by those machines. Those were the days when "follow the science" meant we were told that the earth was no doubt headed for a big global freeze within a few years.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I well remember growing up in the 1960's and still seeing in the 70's snowplows like this on the road where I grew up on the Tug Hill Plateeau of NY state. The snow was so deep that the bigest Oshkosh plows would ram the drifts crossing the road, come to a dead stop, back up, and "buck" it again as they called it.

Very interesting power plowing. It makes me wonder how roads were plowed in big snow places before automotive vehicles. Seems almost impossible.

 

[clemency]

Very interesting power plowing. It makes me wonder how roads were plowed in big snow places before automotive vehicles. Seems almost impossible.

I think they were rolled. And people used sleighs.

 

[yknpdlr]

Very interesting power plowing. It makes me wonder how roads were plowed in big snow places before automotive vehicles. Seems almost impossible.

They did not attempt to plow or remove the snow from the road surface. They used large barrel type rollers drawn by horses to compact the snow. Before motor vehicles were in common use, horse drawn "cutters" were how my grandparents and parents traveled on the compacted snow in the region. You can imagine the slushy mess this made during spring melt. I have seen these rollers in museums, such as in the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY.