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Last Updated 10:11 PM Sunday, September 05, 2010
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Local
| 4/7/2008 9:50:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Weekend Weather Breaks Snow Record In St. J
St. Johnsbury residents have something to brag about.
The winter of 2007-08 was the snowiest in town since record keeping began in 1894, said meteorologist Steve Maleski, of the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St. Johnsbury.
"The odds of this happening again in my lifetime are pretty small," he said. "If you're a kid, you have the chance to see a winter like this again, if there's no climate change."
A total of 139.2 inches of snow had fallen on St. Johnsbury by Saturday afternoon, nudging past the old record of 139 inches set in 1968, Maleski said. St. Johnsbury tied the record just after 4 p.m. on Friday.
Measurements are taken on a "snow board" behind the museum, Maleski said. Officials guidelines are observed to prevent over, or under measuring snowfall, he said.
The weather pattern this winter was reminiscent of 1970-71, though a bit warmer, Maleski said.
"We didn't have a lot of gigantic coastal blizzards," he said. "We had a number of moderate sized snowstorms with one or two heavy ones."
The potential effects of the snowfall this year loom large, Maleski said. The odds of a long, dry spring are low, he said.
"There's a lot of water in this snowpack," Maleski said. "The risk of flooding this spring is above normal."
If heavy rain falls, rivers and streams will almost certainly overflow, Maleski said. However, the threat will be reduced to normal spring flooding if warm weather finds its way to St. Johnsbury, he said.
Jim O'Reilly, owner of the Wildflower Inn and Lyn-Burke Motel in Lyndon, hopes for a smooth transition into summer, but said the snowy winter boosted business.
"The snow makes for good business," he said. "It was definitely better than the last two years."
The Lyn-Burke Motel, which attracts a lot of snowmobilers, did better every month this winter, O'Reilly said. The Wildflower Inn, which attracts skiers and snowmobilers, did best in December, January and February, but March lagged behind the previous year, when people clamored to take advantage of late season snow, he said.
Now, O'Reilly has one request for mother nature.
"We're just hoping the snow moves in a nice, orderly fashion so we don't have any flooding," he said.
On the flip side of the coin, St. Johnsbury resident
Roger Damon, a lifelong skier and avalanche expert, hopes for more snow. The skiing has been phenomenal, starting with snow in December, he said.
"It just set the tone for the whole winter," he said. "This year was outstanding."
The conditions at Burke Mountain were top notch, he said.
"Mother nature just blessed the place," Damon said. "It was just absolutely outstanding skiing. I couldn't agree more with all the people from away who said this is the best skiing in New England."
The skiing at Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington in New Hampshire's White Mountains is equally impressive, said Damon, a patroller at Tuckerman. The avalanche rating was low this weekend, and a good crowd was on the mountain, he said.
"At times it felt just like being out west," Damon said. "It was such beautiful, beautiful snow."
Damon also remembered the winter of 1968.
"This year was head and shoulders over that winter because I was working and couldn't go everyday then," he said.
He remembers one snowstorm in 1968 forced a closure at Fairbanks Scales, where he was working. About 36 inches of snow fell.
"The plant shut down at noon," Damon said. "By 1:15 p.m. we were skiing up at Burke. We went up and just cut it to pieces. We were the only ones there."
Dave Gwatkin, spokesman at Burke Mountain, wasn't there for the winter of 1968, but said snowfall this winter made for record breaking lift ticket and season pass sales. About 19 feet of snow fell on the mountain.
"The season was really all about well-timed, well-distributed snow," he said. "This was a year where everything kept going well."
Despite a January thaw, snow was in place for all the critical holidays, Christmas, New Years, and Martin Luther King day, Gwatkin said.
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