WVA Snow Fall Record?
March 28, 2005
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I've noticed that most of the ski areas in West Virginia have received between 55-60" of snow this year. I found a link on WG's webpage that indicated the least amount of snow received in CV in the last 17 years is 85". We're still 25+" from reaching the record low accumulation for the past 17 years. Does anyone want to make any predictions on the total amount of snow CV will receive this year?
1. 90-100"
2. 100" - 125"
3. 125" - 150"
4 150"+ (I'm an optimist, I'm voting for this one.)
5. <85" New Record Low (Boo hiss, hiss, .......)
May be someone with a little more expertise than I, could set up an official poll or some way to tally the results.
May be the winner could help predict next years weather also!
28 more for feb..32 for march..& 5 for april...65 more,a subpar 120 for year.Man I hope i'm wrong!!!
The ski resorts of WVA should consider themselves lucky at this point; things could be far worse! I live near Blue Knob ski area, PA and we've had only 20 inches of snow so far this season (according to my unofficial count).
Historically, some of WV's largest snowfalls have come in late feb, anytime in march and don't forget last year in april. (t-line had 20+ onclosing weekend). The 150 average is still on the radar and may even be exceeded. All it takes is one big one ( remember march '93).
Yep, I remember march 93, I was in CV. Had to stay there an extra two days. Darn, shucks, I really wanted to get back to work, NOTTTTTT!
Back in the early 90s, Whitegrass had a post in their lodge of snowfall for the last ten years (they probably still have it there). Sometime in the 1980s Canaan Valley got a paltry 57 inches of snow. Criminy-- I'd kill to have 57 inches of snow be a BAD year where I live but anyway. The point is, as far as I know 57 inches is their worst winter.
Now, if you want to really keep your eyes open... I do not believe Pickens, WV has ever received less than 90-100 inches of snow. They are by far the snowiest spot south of New York State, maybe south of Vermont. Watch Pickens. If they end much below 100 inches this should be considered one of the worst- if not the worst- snow winter in the last 50 years.
Ah....yes! It' fun geezing about the memorable ones...the dumps that history books write about. I was at the shoe as a p/t instructor that year with a small shamrock unit. So much snow that we had to dig ourselves out with a dust pan and dump the snow into the sink w/running water in order to get to the parking lot. Some fool left the snow shovel outside overnight. So much snow that at tow we were walking ON TOP of the roofs of cars. Lets pray that the gods bless us with one like that again.
Where is Pickins? Is it at elevation?
Pickens is located southwest of Elkins way up in the mountains off the beaten path of any regular WV highway. To get to Pickens you take a left on US219/259/55/92 leaving Elkins and going south for like... 25-30 minutes through towns like Beverly, until you reach Mill Creek. Make a right onto Mill Creek Street which then dumps off onto a partially paved road named Helvetia-Adolph Road. Take this road up into the mountains for around 20 miles and you'll get to Pickens.
Pickens itself is not an incorporated town, it's not like Moorefield, it's not like Wardensville, rather it's like a tiny neighborhood of homes from the 1950's. What Pickens is known for is mostly it's Maple Syrup festival sometime in Feb-March when the town of 30 residents booms into several hundred. Pickens, if my memory serves me correctly after attending numerous Maple Syrup Festivals, was settled by German immigrants over the last hundred or so years. You should notice that pretty easily by passing through the tiny community of a few homes named Helvetia and Adolph. This area is mostly traveled by coal trucks as you pass an entrance to a strip mining coal area before reaching Pickens. I think most of those residents are coal miners.
Pickens is also known for a few historical items such as receiving the most snowfall of anywhere in WV, more than Canaan Valley, Timberline, etc. They reach somewhere in or around the 200"+ each year. Pickens is also known for having a doctor that lived to be 85 and delievered over 3000 babies without a death in the area. He was one of the old 1800's doctors who traveled from home to home for medical care and for birthing because the nearest hospital was Elkins and thats an hour+ away.
When it comes to elevation, Mill Creek where you turn off of the highway is around 2000' at the base of the mountains. Upon going up the Mill Creek Street and continuing on that road you are immediately at 2700' within a mile or so. All of the nearby knobs within few are no less than 2900/3000 feet. After a few miles driving the up and down valley to summit driving of this partially paved back road goes from 2200' - 3200'. At one point you will drive past a strip mine near Blue Rock Knob that is around 3600' in elevation. Overall with this road winding around 20 or so miles around some really bad road conditions during non-snowy winter... if you go back there and it snows, trust me you won't be getting out anytime soon no matter what Subaru or Hummer you have.
Overall what is unique about this area isn't nessecarily the elevation. Look at CV, Snowshoe, heck even Hardy County outside of Wardensville has 2800' elevation along Corridor H. So that nessecarily isn't the cause of all of this snow. Rather Pickens sits in the direct path of every great lake affect snow with the combined affect of these mountain ridges squeezed so closely together which traps cold air, it just snows a ton more than CV. When I say these mountains are squeezed together, they are so close together with such constant vertical going up and down, I could stand on one and through a baseball to hit another ridge. And they are all like that.
TOPO map for Pickens, WV:
http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.asp...l+creek%7cwv%7cDriving Directions from Elkins to Pickens.
http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result?ed=xTowJ...amp;tcountry=us
Leaving for SLC March 7. Rest assured that if there's an epic dump in March it'll be that week.
I do believe we've got a couple of big storms coming. No way all those headless chickens and face paint can be ignored. Put me down for what we've got so far, 50" plus another 50" plus two 18" dumps. 136"
jimmy
Is that a landing strip in the middle of town with a KINK IN THE MIDDLE? Man, there must be some GREAT piots out there... or a lot of dead ones (Darwinianism at its finest).
Thanks for the info Brad. I'll have to take a trip out there someday. Maybe in July, after their snow melts.
That is definately a landing strip for pilots. Although wnen I was out there for the maple syrup festival, that is where the cars were parked, couple kids playing football. Just to look up from that flat field and look all around you, it looks like a massive football stadium because the mountains and ridges close in all around you. You can look up and see houses 200-300' above you looking down on the side of the ridges. It's almost... european like to be back there.
My dad was a flight instructor when I was in high school, so I was taking lessons from him for free. We used to land at ths one airport in Massachusetts called Hiller airport. There were hills on all four sides of the runway you had to clear- steep hills, about 200-300 feet high. Nasty hills. Plane-eating hills. Your description of Pickens' runway reminds me of that airport.
On one's journey to the great land of Pickins one should stop in Helvetia at this German Restuarant. I can't think of the name off the top of my head, maybe someone else on this board knows what I am talking about. Food is out of this world. It is pretty much like going to someones house for dinner, only the food is out of this world.
What I think is interesting, is that once a person leaves Mill Creek and heads towards Pickens, it literally IS like another world back there. To me it's the closest thing I can compare to someone wanting to know what Europe is like. Johnfmh - Dare to goto Pickens and setup a ski resort across rented farmland back there?
It can be your little Europe in the Mid Atlantic.
Quote:
On one's journey to the great land of Pickins one should stop in Helvetia at this German Restuarant. I can't think of the name off the top of my head, maybe someone else on this board knows what I am talking about. Food is out of this world. It is pretty much like going to someones house for dinner, only the food is out of this world.
I think Helvetia is more snowy than pickens + kumbrabow state forest i think could be the snowiest place in WV.Pickens def doesn't hold thier snow like the valley(0 at pickens..3 at the valley)& 6 at 4000'.+ Kumbrabow is reporting 5" on the ground.There are a pair of Mtns between elkins & the valley that I would love to know the statistics on.I take that back about Kumbrabow...Mount porte crayon RULES!!!
A little off topic... I was doing some checking and Wardensville averages around 50" of snowfall per year with January having the largest avg snowfall of any month coming in around 12.1". February is a close second with 10.2". Looks like we are severely behind and unless we get another 47" between now and March, our whopping total of 3" won't be surpassed.
That and it was 68*F outside today in Wardensville, talk about feeling miserable. I should *NEVER* be outside in basketballshorts and a jersey in Feb under any circumstances and feel like it's April.
Yeah, snowfalls a little meager in the mid-Atlantic, but have you checked out the Pacific Northwest? Whistler is hauling snow off the glaciers so that you can ski down from mid-mountain.
I saw the Winter X-Games... more specifically the boardercross and halfpipe competitions this weekend and it was raining fairly hard causing the pipe conditions to be the slowest and wettest yet. EVERYONE was ranking low due to the wet slush at the bottom of the pipe killing speeds and keeping everyone from doing stuff like 540's due to lack of air. This winter is slighly disappointing.
The Northwest has had a MISERABLE year, possibly their worst ever too. Part of that, though, is because almost all the storms have tracked over the Sierras. Utah and CA are doing just fine this winter. Think AZ and NM have had a decent year as well so far too. The Northwest power system is hydro dependent though so bad snow is a lot more than just bad skiing, it could have some really bad ramifications for the power market in the summer ahead for the entire West Coast. Hope it breaks for them, and quickly.
Tell me about it. My girlfriends parents live in The Dalles Oregon and her mom said this is the first year in decades she could remember them having this little snow and it being this warm. Normally there are several passes out there that get clogged shut during massive storms of 8' of snow or more. So far this year they haven't even been close to being closed off.
It really is weird everywhere, so at least I don't feel too bad about WV having a lack of snow.
SCWVA wrote
Quote:
...... Does anyone want to make any predictions on the total amount of snow CV will receive this year?
1. 90-100"
2. 100" - 125"
3. 125" - 150"
4 150"+ (I'm an optimist, I'm voting for this one.)
5. <85" New Record Low (Boo hiss, hiss, .......)
May be someone with a little more expertise than I, could set up an official poll or some way to tally the results.
May be the winner could help predict next years weather also!
SCWVA, Checked White Grass today, they're reporting 143" so far. Looks like you're still in the hunt w/your 150" prediction.
Is it too late to make a prediction?
It's funny, this is my first year living in the "mountains." This March down here in Blacksburg we've basically been able to watch spring move northward. Some of y'all were at T-line and Seven Springs reporting scattered snow showers and temps in the low 30s last weekend? Yeah, it was 50 here. A month ago, our temps were comparable with the WV mountains (still warmer, but comparable: when it snowed there it usually snowed here). Spring definitely moves south to north, not low elevation to high elevation.
Anyway, we clocked in with 23 inches of snow this winter, which is right around our average. I've discovered though that 23 inches of "snow" around B-burg is definitely not the same thing as 23 inches of snow in most other places. Thrown in the mix is ice, snow that melts in one hour, and an indecipherable white substance that we refer to as a "snizzle" (a mix of snow, ice, and drizzle) or "frizzle" (a mixture of freezing rain, ice, mist, drizzle, and some other moist substance) depending on the texture of the falling precipitation. I really can't explain it; you just have to live here to understand.
It sounds awful, but Wardensville has clocked in around 10-12" of snow this winter so far at 1000' elevation. I'm going off of memory here that we've had 2 3" snows and then we had that one snow that topped out around 4" from the 'big noreaster' and maybe another inch or so on top of that. Wardensville's normal wintry average is around 43" of snow a year.
I think you should use the bleak snow winter to Wardensville's advantage, Brad. You can start advertising your town as the "Palm Springs of West Virginia." You know- while all the local mountains are getting inundated with snow, you're basking in the mild air of the Potomac River Valley, skiing all morning and golfing all afternoon, etc. Add an air force base, some sand, a few thousand retirees and the two places are virtually indistinguishable!
lol shush it's about that bad now with our politicians wanting to rape this county of it's rural life and make it a playground for DC's rich and retiree's. In our fight against the dams the vice chair of the soil conservation service was under WV ethics commission investigation for using the power of his office to try and build the dam in an area where he owns land of which could be sold for 'lake side condo's' which would make him millions.
Don't go around giving more ideas. lolol
Seriously though I am contemplating a run for county commissioner here in 3 years. I'll get in there and lay the smack down.
While I wish you the best in your endeavor, isn't being a county commissioner only slightly better than being "mommy" in a maximum security prison?
Can't wait until your opponents comb this site for incriminating remarks against you. We could start insinuating things that could ruin you... unless you promise us some real estate. I'm thinking a nice 1/2 acre lot at the base of Almost Heaven would keep me quiet...
(and this is all joking, just so you're sure)
County commish is just a stepping stone, WALKER FOR GOVERNOR!! I'll pm you my application for an on the slopes body guard position. I already have the dark glasses
LOL So you mean I can't get up and body slam someone off the commish's desk when I don't like what they say?
Well you know.. I could just run for govenor and work on starting tax policies that are kind to ski resorts by promoting tourism, bringing in televised halfpipe competitions to almost heaven but also seeing that laws are made that protect the national conservation of this state. aka, managed growth. And my house will be tucked away off the slopes that you would have to do some glading to get too.
Is WV gonna get more snow this season? WV is basically at it's average of 150". Snowshoe I think boasts a 180" average. Here are the totals to date:
Snowshoe - 156"
CV/T-line/WG - 143"
Any predictions on one last dump?
NOAA doesn't look too promising for Tline getting any more snow this season. Maybe if Snowshoe can hold on until April 10.......
Just got back from Snowshoe. They still have tons of snow. Lower Shay's, Choker, and Knot Bumper were bumped up nicely. No mud, rocks, grass in the troughs. It actually snowed on Friday am and then the sun came out for the rest of the day. They will probably be near 100% open when they close.
