New England Daily Snow

Update

It's that time of the year where we close out the New England Daily Snow with a season recap. Somehow after what has seemed at times to be a mediocre season we end up almost exactly at average/normal in the high peaks in the Greens here at the end of April. In Vermont at least, the Mt. Mansfield snow stake chart above shows the normal ramp into winter through early December with a pretty uneventful stretch into 2022. Snow increased incrementally through January into February following the same pace as the average season, but sputtered out in February and March with series of mid-winter thaws and storms. And just when we thought the season was over in mid-March we managed a few more storms through mid-April.

Twitter image posted by @KillingtonMtn on 4/20. 

Do you remember all the big snows, or rather the lack of big snows? Let's see if you can recall these events at Killington according to their snow reports:

• November 19-20: 8" right before the Thanksgiving Holiday
• December 8-10: 10" trying to build bases early in the season
• December 11-January 6: A whopping 2" <-- this was a terrible stretch
• January 17-18: 10"
• February 4: 10"
• March 13: 16" finally a good storm

That was really it. Surprisingly there were very few big storms to write about this winter with only the March 13 storm dropping more than a foot on a given day at Killington. Other places did have a few days with more than a foot or strung together at least a couple days totaling more than two feet. Jay Peak had a 22" report on that March 13 storm with 31" over four days.

48-hour snowfall estimated by the NOAA National Operational Hydrological Remote Sensing Center for March 13-14 showing Jay Peak's big storm.

In a close second, surprisingly, Blue Hills in Boston reported 21.4" on January 30th and a two-day total of 27.6". 

48-hour snowfall estimated by the NOAA National Operational Hydrological Remote Sensing Center for January 30-31 showing Blue Hills 27.6" dump.

The lack of snow didn't stop resorts from making snow though. In the absence of snow, we saw many nights with below normal temperatures. In November 2021 alone, 25 of the 30 days had overnight temperatures just down the hill from Killington in Rutland below freezing. 25 of 30! That afforded them plenty of time to build machine-made bases early. The same story occurred in December and January with a higher frequency of daytime highs also below freezing. So even with a lack of natural snow, many resorts were operating close to 100% by January and dropping ropes with new snows through February.

Estimated season-to-date snowfall as of April 21st. Dark reds across the lake-effect belts, Greens, Whites, and northeast Maine are all 150" or more. View the map yourself here in our Maps layer. 

The big season total winner this winter was, as usual, Jay Peak. We don't track the season totals here at OpenSnow for individual resorts, but you can navigate over to individual resort websites in order to find their self-reported totals, or you can find the historical report calendar on our website and try to add them all up. The numbers won't add up. Why? Sometimes we receive duplicate reports, we don't receive any reports, reports are sometimes storm totals or only updates from a previous report. It's complicated. Anyways, here are a few totals using the different methods from around the region:

• Jay Peak: Resort reported 303", Summed reports received by OpenSnow: 272"
• Stowe: Resort reported 224", Summed reports received by OpenSnow: 152"
• Killington: Resort reported 212", Summed reports received by OpenSnow: 121"
• Sugarloaf: Resort reported 116",  Summed reports received by OpenSnow: 44"
• Waterville Valley: Resort reported 96", Summed reports received by OpenSnow: 108"
• Blue Hill: They are collocated with a NOAA climate site that recorded 70.4"

And that's a wrap on the New England Daily Snow for Winter 2021-22. Will it snow again this season? Probably. Are a few resorts still open? Of course. At this point though, those of you still skiing likely know what to expect and are keenly aware of where to find the forecasts for your likely destination (Jay/Killington/Tuckerman).

Thank you all for reading and following along this winter. I hope you found the information helpful in finding good snow and also learned a thing or two along the way. 

-Jay

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