Went all the way back to 1945/50 & saw that the 5 year ave was only 86.4 (which if measured with todays standards would probably be 100 inches)..& then Cked the last 10 year Ave which came to 181 inches...Drumroll please!.....The new 5 year Ave is a WHOPPING 191 inches a year...thats big time folks!

so much for owl goar's sphereacle earthen warming teary.....

In my years going to the Valley it has definitely snowed more in the past decade or so. We first started going there in late 70s with friends who are not really very active or athletic but were determined to do XC skiing because it is a healthy activity and 'good for you'. XC was all the rage at the time. I didn't know about Whitegrass then and had not started telemarking. We stayed at the CV State Park Lodge and skied on their XC trails. Our friends were good for an hour or 2 at a very easy pace. I would always go out for a longer ski in the afternoon by myself. I discovered the route to Blackwater Falls and the Railroad Grade trail, and eventually Whitegrass.

Somewhere in the 70s or 80s there was a stretch of 4 years or so in which we had no snow or just a bit of snow and lots of mud. This was over Presidents weekend, the time when we always went. I was young and crazy then and used to tuck the toboggan slope that begins right behind the CV lodge, on XC skis with floppy system boots. That's how I started my right shoulder on the path that it is still on today, an ongoing cycle of tweak, heal, tweak again. Our then teen aged kids didn't care for all this crunchy stuff but fortunately Timberline opened about that time so we dropped them off there each morning and picked them up in afternoon.

I hope these remarks don't lead to a GW debate. We should just be grateful for our recent winters in the valley and always get there soon after the snow falls.

My kids learned a weather song in school when they were little. It goes like this.

Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot

Whether the weather be fair or whether the weather be not

Whatever the weather we'll weather the weather

Whether we like it or not.

Brett anderson of Accuweather has a global warming thread that I have been following & have made a couple of posts...so I feel that i have vented my GW energy...But the summer will start to drag here at DCSKI & I have been meaning to ask you about (comment on) that Infrared Spectrum equation Denis......

Lets do that over beer in Timbers Pub next season.

I'm going to need a COLD snowy day for that meeting!

Where are the stations located at which the reports were taken from? One major issue with any weather data is the location from which temps/precip/snow/ect are recorded ( Metadata).

Good example is Regan Airport, some brilliant guy had the idea that we should take WX readings from a strip of land jutting out into a wide body of water... main reason why Regan gets 16 inches of snow but the Mall/NW/McLean gets 22 or why it is 85 on an april day in the Mall/NW/McLean but only 75 at Regain (cool water).

... No GW debate whatsoever, just when ya see a discrepancy like this my weather sense kicks in to tell me something is fishy

I always look at that too. There are some places in the valley and vicinity which do receive higher accumulations than others. I think the reporting/recording station is at Canaan Heights which would make a difference. I know of others who have kept records there over the years which have shown different accumulations and temps. Just drive into t-line on a cold morning and if you have a car thermometer watch the temp fall the closer you get to the base. I've left 32 some mornings at 0 F and got to -10 F by the time I was at the base.