Greetings and welcome!
I went out for a pretty much final measurement 10pm Monday night and got readings as high as the 4-4.5″ range. It is pretty light snow, and the last wave in particular was pretty puffy.
The reason that it is probably my final reading is that there is a good bit of wind coming behind the snow. The forecast is for 10-25mph winds gusting to 35. It isn’t a hurricane, but it will be enough to blow the lightweight snow around tonight and tomorrow.
My travels yesterday took me to the usual Lakewood Townsend Carter run for groceries and supplies. There was full coverage on all of the trails along F between Silver Cliff and Lakewood, and along Hwy 32 all of the way up to Carter. Even the spot just north of Lakewood near the wayside that usually burns off in the sun was intact and looking good. Gotta love that ice base.
My weekend travels put me on some back roads where I found a combination of bare road and glare ice, depending on if it was a sunny or or shaded spot. The freeze thaw freeze cycle had made it pretty icy. I know that scenario has shown up on some areas of trail too. It is still better to run on ice than mud. It will be less of a problem with the new snow from Monday.
In my travels near High Falls Flowage Sunday the trails were still intact there, but I’d expect a few icy spots from what we talked about above. There were a couple of spots that the sun was making soft, which then froze back up.
From what I have seen the last two days, the trail system is still intact as far as base, and it now has 4″+ of fresh snow. There might be some icy spots, but no dirt on March 18 is pretty good.
The first part of the week looks good for holding on to the trails until the weekend. The storm that hit Monday is a slow mover, and is expected to sort of lurk NE of here for a few days. Right now it looks cloudy until about Thursday.
The sun is what I am worried about, and late week is the concern. Here is the NWS take on it..
Thursday: Partly sunny. Highs in the upper 20s.
Thursday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows around 10 above zero.
Friday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the middle 30s.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. Lows in the upper teens.
Saturday: Partly sunny. Highs in the middle 30s.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows in the upper teens.
Sunday: Partly sunny. Highs in the middle 30s.
I am not trying to be dark about it, but a sunny late March day can get way out of hand. I use my guideline that a variability of +/-10ยบ from the normal high temp is common, and +/- 20 degrees is within normal range. The normal high right now is 39. Last year on 3-19 it was 79. Wednesday is the first day of Spring. None of that is really in our favor so it is bordering on incredible that Winter is hanging on and the trails are so nice.
I’d ride ASAP. We are golden for the first part of the week with great conditions. I am not sure how the warmth and sun late week will work out.
Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB