My thoughts on the drive up to kiandra today. Any snow that fell yesterday has pretty much all washed away. Even at 1400m this afternoon (3 - 4pm) it was rain, not snow.
Today was within 10mm or so of what was put forward by the models, as below. Precip verified IMO. The let down today (IMO) was lower level temps, which proved to under-verifiy by 100-200m. 4pm Wagga Wagga GFS: Observed 3pm:
I joked three days ago about "Vancouver weather" .... it's another very damp morning on the Jindy North Shore.
Perisher Valley car park...... damp. Temps hovering around zero. Slush in the carpark area. Was rain driving through the park and turned to slush about Smigs. Icy mix building slowly on the windscreen. Might be some net gains at higher elevations but I think heavy going at best... that’s a guess though. EDIT: .....Needed an explanatory pic!
Hate posting these sorts of obs but they’re important- mizzle in Thredbo village, very damp, not exactly rushing to get up there today:
Snowing in Crookwell. Not really much settling yet. Will head out soon and have a drive around (Laggan Grabben Gullen) etc and see how the accumulation is going there as they are higher and colder than town. Very very wet here.
And using the 10mm = 100cm of fluff..the 50mm since 9am = 5cm = Lots of what I’m having for breakfast...porridge with maple syrup topping..
Watch the time lapse on the ill place Perisher stick , through from yesterday .. It rained all night on and off . Pity , -5 and the wind , weather from the south west is what is needed .. pity
Snowing steadily here in Orange now after a mix of snow and rain earlier but not settling yet temp at Orange Ap. now down to 1.7 deg. Very much a surprise for me today at 885 m asl.
Can confirm snow was very, very difficult to navigate away from the groomed runs. As heavy as it gets and still be snow IMO.....Groomers ok. Difficult to ascertain the net gain as Mt P was yet to open at circa 10:30 due to the conditions. The moisture runs deep.....It’s going to be an interesting freeze assuming overnight temps drop over the coming week. Currently heavy wet sleet and snow falling at PV carpark level.
Since about 5pm last night we haven't seen anything remotely heavy on the MR to combat that 1700m FL. Everything remained north of Bega unfortunately.
Unusually warm today, 15 degrees in Yack. foehn effect again from the easterly flow . Everyone who usually rides together, separate on the mtbike tracks. BTW maddest looking weather map BOM Weds PM ie lack of isobars ?
Damp is probably the best word to describe Thredbo today although the clear stuff was turning to graupel around 1pm up at the Cruiser area (when we pulled up stumps). Snow suffered - Dream Run looked more like a nightmare - but the groomers did well with the other major trails. Unfortunately way more rain than snow ...
I reckon we dodged another wet Sunday dog. Precip numbers on PV BOM are the best you'll see when Noah is staring down at you. This could have been a season killer day with a 100mm at 2C - instead it's just a crap day in a typical Aussie ski season. Sure, Thredbo got whacked a bit more down low - but a bit of rain is the least of their worries with a broken snow making system that's generally needed all season at 1300m. I expect it will be a delayed start on both hills tomorrow as they clean up from Glugfest #2. But should be all good for a few days after that on the groomers. Until the next August event.
I'm astonished that so much of this was rain even at Perisher's elevation. With those temps I though it'd be okay.
At the risk of deflecting the thread to a Vic (Closed shop) discussion, this is all too familiar in Vic hills even in a normal year - especially on the smaller hills near Melbourne and Buller - one never takes snow for granted down these parts. Im sorry for you guys - it’s awful skiing in rain and glug - no wax can really over suction from that type of affliction. Even Hakuba had days like this in Feb - Seeing Japan snow struggle at times made me feel kinder towards Aussie snow ‘challenges’!
We passed through at around 11:30 and I'm suprised it wasn't shut then. Some poor sod has lost their new car and has some explaining to do to Kennards Hire. Aquaplaning plus trailer would be my guess.
Yeah was just going to post. Sleet/wintery mix in Blackheath upper Blue Mountains. Snow/ice outside temperature warning light in the car.
You've entered the 'heavy' band of rain. That evaporative cooling that the Snowies so desperately needed.
What an absolute fizzer of a system, was always going to be very volatile and unpredictable but jeez The Frog is going to cop a belting for this one as he was claiming well over A metre of fresh, he got a lot of peoples hopes up on this one
Classic Aus. Proves you can pour over charts all you want but weather in the mountains will do what it wants.
Yep classic Oz, if only the mountains were 200m higher, or the temperature 1C cooler Speaking of 200m higher, the main range will have seen the precipitation as all snow, 2000m + I think. Actually not a complete fizzer in reality, just seems that way after the unrealistically high expectations set by the BOM’s upgrades etc. For Perisher, friday afternoon was good, saturday morning was pretty decent, sunday a disappointment. However, definitely still a significant net gain, especially above 1800m I always tell people, we can prognosticate as much as we like over the forecasts, but the weather is going to do what it is going to do, we can’t change it. We can only ski innthe conditions we are given on any day
To be fair POW the whole evaporative cooling theory might have been Arnhem Bridge for this system IMO
It was all i could think of at the time and it was a rather bold leap of faith. At least we got some weather.
It never got heavy enough. We saw fall rates of 1-2mm/hour for the most part. Useless. Models were calling for up to 3-5mm/hour right up until Friday's run (HERE) It simply never stacked up.
