If memory recalls, all the 'first' storms of the winter are usually a big let down. The snow usually splits between Pittsburgh and Snowshoe, missing them totally and hitting the north or , the south where it is usually a mixed precip.

The way Im seeing the radar right now, that appears to be happening before my eyes.

How does one read the current animated radar and not see this? I've watched it for the past few hours an noticed two things.

1. it's splitting. The white is lingering north and spirally, slowly heading more north.

2. the stuff coming up from the south seems to be moving away from the snowshoe area south and THEN going north.

With that said, I keep looking and they havent changed 'storm totals'.

I've also noticed that behind this band of rain, there is NO precipitation. By tracking it's current movement over time, if estimates serve, this will actually be over by 6am tomorrow and everyone will wake up to flurries.

If I had to base my limited knowledge of reading a radar and use this as a basis to predict storm totals, I would say Snowshoe 6" and south,west PA 3".

Obviously, I'm not the weather man so.

You are ignoring the potential for a significant lake effect snow.
The Colonel

Here are three forecasts for the Shoe. Apparently it is still raining there, with snow supposed to start about 1:00AM, Friday.

http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/lo...LX&etn=0006

http://www.weather.com/weather/right-now/USWV0704:1

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php...nit=0&lg=en
note that temp reporting station is not at the Shoe.
Anybody else notice that the web cams listed on the Southeast web site are not working, only the Elk Mt. view of a walkway and lodge is working at the Shoe.
The Colonel

GRRRRRR

I hate being right when I want to be wrong.

Things were looking good. From the time of this posting up until oh, 7-8pm when I checked again, it showed that our local mountains would receive 11-16 inches of snow!!!!!!

I just looked again. They now downgraded it to 4-8.

What the heck. Up down up down up BIG DOWN. This happens EVERY year at this time.

but wait...there is hope
ACCUMULATIONS... 10 TO 18 INCHES OF SNOW WITH LOCALIZED HIGHER AMOUNTS IN THE HIGHEST ELEVATIONS. ONE TO TWO-TENTHS OF AN INCH OF ICE ACCUMULATION.
posted at 10pm est.


Mmmmmmmmkay Accuweather is usually spot on in our area. I'm hoping they are wrong and I'm actually riding in 15 inches of POW.

We never even get to use that term here. When I hear someone use it, I want to loosen their bindings. 2" of wetpack on top of frozen granular DO NOT make .......POW.......


(Nervously rocking back and forth)

I was hoping to ride this week, the week of my vacation. Wasn't to be. I was hoping Fri/Sat would be the epic days, with Friday being the best. Everything pushed back (pretty usual though).

Now I'm just hoping this doesnt do something nasty like wait until sat even to really finish , leaving sunday riders with the best conditions. As Sunday, I'm traveling to visit family that simply doesnt understand that good conditions come but thrice a year.

I thought some folks here refer to Accuweather as crappuweather? From my experience, NWS is much more reliable. Chris Bailey standed by his prediction for 8-14 inches on the WV Alpps and Brad Panovich said Snowshoe could get up to 16 inches.

WV may get more due to higher elevations. The temps just arent dropping here and the radar shows splits away from us with not much behind after the cold hits.

The damage from the rain and the lack of snow to me, say it's going to be a gloomy christmas for 7springs. HV will likely survive though.

They posted something about a white christmas on their site too.

Lets hope Im wrong!

Looking pretty good now,

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=39.1287189&lon=-79.46477390000001&site=all&smap=1&searchresult=Davis%2C%20WV%2026260%2C%20USA

Poor 7Springs. Taking a close look at their web cams, they received >>>>>>>>>>> ZERO <<<<<<<<<<< inches of snow yesterday (ok a light dusting)
......and from all that rain, they have little islands of snow left over on wagner underneath.

Sad state indeed for 7S

No snow guns blowing either.

Hidden Valley on the other hand, is making snow.



my wife said the weather channel called it a bust but there could still be 'some' lake effect snow.

What country was it that held weather forecasters accountable for incorrect forecasts? I thought that was hilarious, and what is wrong with the world today.

However, it DOES appear that weather forecasters listen to what others forecast, and only +/- 5% their own forecast. You rarely hear someone before a storm say "oh hell no, those other guys are clueless, this will pass right over us"

why?
because it's easier to be a sheep in a herd than the lone wolf.


Well, there goes my dreams of knee deep powder.

Accuweather downgraded this morning to only a handful of inches over the day Friday.

Snowshoe's conditions don't look like they were too bad and in fact, they received a few inches to cap off anything that was kinda crummy. Kind of like reconstituting beans that sat on warm too long with some water and additional heat, should be good there. If only it were not 4 hours away.

Needlepoint anyone?

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php...x=256&y=157

its just arriving slightly later, 18 some inches in the next 24 hours perhaps...

Dumpin light fluffy lake-flake finally! THings could get DEEP tomorrow if you add all this up!


Today Snow showers. High near 26. Windy, with a west wind 28 to 33 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.

Tonight Snow with areas of blowing snow. Low around 17. Wind chill values as low as zero. Windy, with a west wind 33 to 37 mph, with gusts as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 10 to 16 inches possible.

Saturday Snow with areas of blowing snow before 11am, then snow likely with areas of blowing snow between 11am and 3pm, then areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow after 3pm. High near 23. Wind chill values as low as -2. Windy, with a west wind 31 to 37 mph, with gusts as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible

yea of course, it would arrive Sunday or worse, Monday. Of course. Why would it arrive on a day that I could actually go? lol. Sigh.

Anyway - still not a believer. At least for our local W.PA hills, it's not looking like this is going to pan out what so ever.

On the bright side. The hills will look less depressing with snow cover. even a SLIGHT bit of cover is a whole heck of a lot nicer to look at than sliver wide slopes right?

Is it just me or does it look like 7S is not really blowing snow on the front side(again) - except for Wagner. Maybe they are blowing on back but no cameras there so thats a crap shoot. :-(

Looks like HV is full on. :=)

Guess its a HV kind of weekend... again.

7S uses an antique snowmaking system that WAS considered cutting edge back during the 1800's. Today, for our area, it's a giant waste of time/money.
They force compressed air and water into a pipe that is elevated and when it combines, out comes snow from a tiny nozzle

HV uses a system that blows the water in the front of what appears to be a turbine fanjet. The air coming from the mega fan turns the water into snow and thus continues to force the snow outwards in a giant circle of happiness.


Also apparently, as 7S uses a compressed air process that one could make in their backyard with an air compressor and a pressure washer, this apparently either heats up the air which assuredly it must, which in turn requires lower temps to make snow. I would think that the colder the pipes carrying the water/air the easier it is to make snow so, if they are covered in snow vs exposed to sun it would matter.

I also heard that HV's system , if they opted for these, could have controls on the units including cameras with lights. This would allow an operator to sit in a booth, view the progress and if needed , raise /lower the snow making head or, turn it left/right using a joystick after selecting the cooresponding number.

I would love to see that in action. That's all I want for xmas. Snowmaking to me, is facinating and has created so much happiness for me in the previous years, how could I not love to check something like that out?
It's akin to visiting a xmas tree farm, or the north pole, or a candy factory, or for me, a woodworking or fireworks facility. Just cool!

7S, I can do their method in my backyard. I would like to take one of their CAT tours however.

For those of you that say " well then why did you get a season pass there"

For the vertical and the possibility to make quick laps on non busy days on their speedlifts. For me, it's all about the north face.

EDIT: FYI HV is making snow where it doesn't affect the people and in areas that desperately need in order to open, such as the side areas as their concern is that people will ride over those areas thinking there is covern only to hit ground with the limited snow from this snowfall, so they will cover what they can to so that doesnt happen. later on they will turn on the mountain but, they are not sure if this will include the north summit. WTH

7S is making snow currently in all areas where they have HV like guns. Cannon guns. Congestion areas mostly. They WILLLLLLLLLLLLL turn their entire mountain on as soon as weather permits. Do they intend on opening the north face or avalanche etc ASAp? Probably not. But their reasoning is probably to show people they ARE doing what they can with their equipment when possible to get the mountain open fully.

The good news is, the cold is FINALLY here and it doesn't look like we will see a week long of 50 degrees and rain.

The bad news is for people like me that had this week and next week off. Between no snow, rain and the holiday/family requirements, my access to enjoy is very limited. The best week would have been to take off the week after xmas.

Such is life. No biggy.

Plus another small system ~Sunday nite/Monday AM. Plus a larger one Wednesday or so. Xmas week could be mighty fine in the Valley.

Winds sound like they could be brutal today/tomorrow.

At Seven Springs?

sigh yes. I live right near the two of them John. My wife wont let me travel unless I have someone to go with that she trusts because she is afraid I'll fall into a tree well :|

And no one we know actually does anything active. Heck, I ask random people at work that look like they do active things, but they only dress like that or, have a jeep with huge tires for ...looks.
The best I could get would be Snowshoe, and unless they open cupp run and/or shay's , it's not worth my traveling all that way really unless there is a big powder event.

So it's down to 7springs. Still challenging enough for me on a board. On skis though, I stopped skiing almost 20 years ago regularly because I was so bored with it. If I headed out west, I would probably ski and board, but honestly - probably ski more if in deep powder.

Tree wells? Oh my.

This is what you need for Xmas:

http://www.backcountry.com/backcountry-access-essentials-package

For 7S you have to wax medium-hard with plenty fluoro otherwise you get the dreaded grab-leg backwards yoink when crossing a patch of honest-to-god natural.

For HV you have to wax extra hard with moly or graphite.

(Posted from Canuckistan with 15cm fresh overnight)