Longest snow cover?

[TEO]

Agreed. But back to OP. Maybe The “The Longest Snow Cover” does not mean the same thing to everyone. Yes you can throw statistical data at it but again that is up to interpretation. Is Mount Mansfield your yardstick or is Tuckerman’s Ravine? Maybe it is how long it takes for The Subway to be passable in Kings Ravine. To me a lot of it is semantics. Primarily using the snow stake at Mt. Mansfiled as an annual snow gauge for the entirety of New England is IMO a bit arbitrary. For instance most years just up the road at Jay Peak they usually thump Mount Mansfield on Total snowfall. So should we be using that Mountain instead? I’m going to stick to my notes as I know what I did an experienced. If you would like to see it differently that is your opinion statistically or not. Thanks for the data. Certainly interesting and open to interpretation.

It's not entirely arbitrary. Most importantly, the Stake has accurate, daily—to my knowledge—National Weather Service records going back to 1954, that are easy for the public to view and make graphic comparisons. Its location is also more central and less anomalous than say Jay Peak,Tuckerman Ravine, or King Ravine's Subway. (While Jay does get significant snowfall, the accuracy of the ski area's marketing department has been questioned greatly in the past.) Also, I'm assuming that your personal records are qualitative rather than quantitative.

If you're wondering if there will be snow left on higher-elevation trails in New England, along the lines of Spencer's original post—and you didn't have access to trip reports or Facebook—I would argue that the Stake would be more representative than the latest picture of the Bowl from the Mount Washington Avalanche Center or calling Jay Peak's marketing department. ;-) That said unlike hiking trails, the snow at the Stake is not compressed by hikers of the course of the winter, so there's a good chance the monorails around 4k' would outlast the snow at the Stake.

 

[skiguy]

It's not entirely arbitrary. Most importantly, the Stake has accurate, daily—to my knowledge—National Weather Service records going back to 1954, that are easy for the public to view and make graphic comparisons. Its location is also more central and less anomalous than say Jay Peak,Tuckerman Ravine, or King Ravine's Subway. (While Jay does get significant snowfall, the accuracy of the ski area's marketing department has been questioned greatly in the past.) Also, I'm assuming that your personal records are qualitative rather than quantitative.

If you're wondering if there will be snow left on higher-elevation trails in New England, along the lines of Spencer's original post—and you didn't have access to trip reports or Facebook—I would argue that the Stake would be more representative than the latest picture of the Bowl from the Mount Washington Avalanche Center or calling Jay Peak's marketing department. ;-) That said unlike hiking trails, the snow at the Stake is not compressed by hikers of the course of the winter, so there's a good chance the monorails around 4k' would outlast the snow at the Stake.

OK you win!We can split hairs but when I stated “more the norm” I was referring to the Ravine and skiing longevity. Take it for what it’s worth objective or subjective. I’ll leave the rest up to you statisticians.

 

[skiguy]

As long as the assumptions are explicit, it's fine to use a smaller data set, but it does make it harder to generalize. I'm sure there are larger data sets available, and that they are being analyzed by climatologist, which is why climate change isn't semantics or subject to interpretation.

Agreed. But today I’m using a smaller data set. Here’s a pic from the Avalanche Center.