The Skiing Weatherman Conditions Report: December 26-30
Herb Stevens, GoLocalProv's Skiing Weatherman
The Skiing Weatherman Conditions Report: December 26-30
At the same time, a strong area of high pressure was parked over Ontario, funneling more low level cold into the region. While the air aloft warmed to above freezing, the cold air at the surface hung tough across much of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont…a perfect setup for an ice storm. What the northern resorts ended up with was a mix of a little snow and a good deal of sleet and freezing rain. The record warmth experienced over much of the Northeast never reached the northern resorts and the cold air that hung tough helped to preserve the snow on the trails. Rain did fall into the mountains of southern Vermont, but north of that, almost all of the precipitation fell in frozen form. In southern New England, most of the precipitation was in liquid form, with some freezing rain occurring as I write this summary (Monday morning). The precipitation today is confined primarily to southern New England, as the last wave of low pressure rides through the region. By tonight, the system will be offshore and cold weather more to our liking will be returning to the region. At a time like this, it is essential to remember that machine made snow is 5 times as dense as natural snow and it is very effective at fighting off a round of warm, wet weather. A big rehabilitation job will be necessary to restore the nice skiing and riding we had last week, but damage to pre-storm trail counts will be minimal.
Once the cold air digs in, it will be up to the talents and technology of the mountain crews to provide skiers and riders with a pleasurable surface for the holidays. The groomers will break up the firm surfaces and grind any layer of ice into the base to create loose granular snow. If you are skiing or riding before Christmas, loose granular is the surface that will be most common on the slopes, but starting tonight (Monday), the return of arctic air will deliver temperatures cold enough for some heavy-duty snowmaking. Once the guns fire up, they will be cranking out crystals round the clock through the entire week in the northern mountains, so gradually, surfaces will be transformed to more of a packed powder consistency. Closer to home, nighttime snowmaking will be very efficient and effective, and the guns will be going all day on Christmas, when temperatures won’t rise out of the low to mid 20’s across southern New England. By the day after Christmas, the majority of open runs will have been re-surfaced and packed powder will be dominant once again…by next weekend, the snowmakers will be back to the business of opening additional runs.
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Rhode Island's Reality TV Stars
Claudia Jordan
The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Season 7)
Claudia Jordan was recently picked up by Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" for Season 7 which is set to air in 2015.
The Providence native and former Miss RI is most recognized for her model stint on the hit show, "Deal or No Deal," but got her start as the second African-American woman ever to become a Barker's Beauty on "The Price is Right." Following her first run on "The Celebrity Apprentice," Donald Trump chose Jordan to host the 2009 Miss Universe pageant on NBC.
Jordan most recently appeared on the All-Star Celebrity Apprentice Season 6, representing the charity organization The Tom Joyner Foundation.
Lynne Diamante
Game of Crowns
Cranston native and CEO of OPTX in Johnston Lynne Diamante is a life-long pageant queen and lawyer.
When Diamante is not on Game of Crowns, she and her family are busy supporting Hasbro Children's Hospital. She also represented Rhode Island at the 1991 Miss USA Pageant.
Photo: Bravo
Amy Diaz
The Amazing Race (Season 23)
Providence native Amy Diaz recently became the latest in a string of Rhode Islanders to capture reality gold by winning the twenty-third installment of the hit CBS reality competition series The Amazing Race. Diaz, along with her boyfriend Jason Case were crowned the winners on Sunday night’s episode. Diaz is a former Miss Rhode Island titleholder, radio host, and a graduate of Classical High School.
Interestingly, fellow Rhode Islanders Daniel and Jordan Pious won season 16 of The Amazing Race in 2010.
Joseph Aaron Segal
Project Runway (Season 11)
The latest Rhode Islander designer to compete in Lifetime's popular fashion competition show, Joseph Aaron Segal works full-time designing and making World of JAS and Pretty Snake collections.
The Providence resident also teaches part-time in the textiles department at Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned an MFA in textile design. Segal finished in 13th place in Project Runway Season 11.
Chris Mercurio
Making Mr. Right (Season 1)
Maybe it was the fact that he admitted that he had his mom from Cranston pack his bags, but the bachelor makeover dreams of Chris Mercurio were short-lived on the new VH1 reality dating show, which premiered in early January, 2013.
He left the show in the second episode.
Lauren Marchetti
The Bachelor (Season 17)
Perhaps the former GoLocalTV host and New England Patriots cheerleader should not have told ABC's newest bachelor, Sean Lowe, that her father would be a, well, threat if he dumped her.
Unfortunately for Marchetti, it played the opposite way, and she was not given a rose in episode 1.
Pauly D
Jersey Shore
He's become such a brand unto himself, it may be tough to remember that Johnston's Paul "DJ Pauly D" DelVecchio got his start as a member of the cast of MTV's wildly popular reality series. While not a reality competition per se, one might argue that Pauly D, who has emerged with resident DJ contracts at top-flight Vegas hotspots, collaborations with the like of 50 Cent, and his own spin-off show, took top prize.
Speaking of top prizes, Pauly won back-to-back Teen Choice Awards for Male Reality Star, in 2011 and 2012.
Richard Hatch
Survivor (Season 1)
Perhaps the most famous of all RI's reality stars, Newport resident Richard Hatch out-survived them all. By the final episode, 51 million Americans watched him "outwit, outplay, outlast" the last of 15 other contestants for the prize of one million dollars and a Pontiac Aztec.
Hatch returned to Survivor in 2004 for the All-Stars season, where, with a cry of, "I"ve been bamboozled!" he was voted off in the fifth episode.
Hatch stayed in the news when he was subsequently sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for failing to declare his winnings to the IRS.
Elizabeth Hasselbeck
Survivor 2: The Australian Outback
Rhode Islanders survived on national television back-to-back, as Elizabeth Filarski, who grew up in Cranston, fought her way to fourth place before being voted off the island.
Filarksi (now Filarski Hasselbeck—she married Washington Redskins quarterback Tim Hasselbeck in July 2002), is perhaps one of the most successful Survivor contestants so far. She traded on her reality show face time to land a hosting job on a show called The Look for Less on the Style Network, and a co-hosting gig on ABC's The View with fellow Rhode Islander Meredith Vieira. She recently retured to co-host Fox and Friends on Fox News after a cancer scare.
Helen Glover
Survivor 5: Thailand
The third Rhode Islander to rise to the extreme physical and emotional challenges of Survivor, the Navy swim instructor from Middletown graced the small screen in Survivor 5: Thailand.
Glover made it to fourth place and launched from there to hosting The Helen Glover Show, on Rhode Island's 920 WHJJ radio. The conservative radio host endorsed Ken Block's gubernatorial campaign earlier this year.
The Associated Press has also named her best talk show host a record five times.
Rafe Judkins
Survivor 11: Guatemala
We're a tough lot here in Rhode Island, which is why Survivor's producers may have dipped into the Rhode Island pot again for Survivor 11: Guatemala, casting 2005 Brown University graduate Rafe Judkins. Judkins, who managed a wilderness program at Brown, got all the way to the final three, but his conscience ultimately caused him to give up any chance at the million-dollar prize. Conscience? Perhaps he's not a true RIer after all.
Footnote: Survivor 19: Samoa included Californian Mike Borassi who attended URI from 1965-1969. The sixty-two-year-old personal chef was pulled from the game in episode 2 after experiencing shortness of breath and low blood pressure.
Jonathan Joseph Peters
Project Runway (Season 7)
The URI graduate had left Rhode Island for Manhattan for 3 years when in 2009, he returned to Providence and was cast on Lifetime's hit design-challenge reality show hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum.
Peters made it all the way to the final 6 of 16 before heading home with his tools. Since then, the designer has taken a prominent role in launching and supporting fashion and design events in the region, including StyleWeek Northeast, where is is Creative Director and VP of Brand Development.
DownCity Restaurant
Kitchen Nightmares (Season 4)
An entire restaurant became the star on a March 11, 2011 episode of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey's high-voltage reality show on FOX about remaking restaurants that are desperately in need. The star? Providence's DownCity restaurant and its stubborn co-owner Abby Cabral.
Ramsey read Cabral et al the riot act, then returned to Providence on July 5, 2011, to check on DownCity's progress. He found a restaurant that had seemingly learned from his contentious earlier visit, and the episode aired October 21. But the changes and notoriety weren't enough to save DownCity from a down economy, and the restaurant closed its doors forever on December 10, 2011.
The Pious Brothers
The Amazing Race (Season 16)
In what has to be a unique situation, two contestants (or in this case, teams) from Rhode Island competed in the same season of a reality show. On the popular, far-flung CBS show that highlighted teamwork and creativity, two teams hailed from the Ocean State: undercover detectives Louis Stravato & Michael Naylor, and Daniel & Jordan Pious, brothers from Barrington.
And maybe two's a charm--the Pious brothers went on to win the whole thing. They were also the first male siblings to win the competition.
Krisily Kennedy
The Bachelor (Season 7)
Warwick resident Krisily Kennedy (Miss Rhode Island USA 2003) graced the spring 2005 season of the show featuring bachelor/actor Charlie O'Connell. She made it all the way to the final two before being rejected, in the May 16 finale, in favor of Sarah Brice, a nurse from Texas.
Kennedy became a contestant on the first season of ABC's spinoff, Bachelor Pad. She made it through four episodes before being eliminated.
Jay Resmini
The Bachelorette (Season 6)
The Barrington native was one of the eight contestants cut during the rose ceremony in the first episode of season six (aired May 24, 2010).
But before he left he was featured in a brief profile in which he visited his parents' home in Barrington, Barrington town hall, and the inside of a Providence courthouse. Resmini is a lawyer with his father's firm, Resmini Law Associates.
Erika Van Pelt
American Idol (Season 11)
While this wildly popular show may not be hard-core reality TV, it's still merits mention that South Kingstown singer Erika Van Pelt made it to tenth place before being eliminated on March 22, 2012.
Her first appearance was in the second episode during auditions in Pittsburgh, which aired July 15, 2011. The episode prior to her elimination included a profile of Erika that showed her home in the Green Hill neighborhood of South Kingstown and a shot of Wakefield's Main Street.
Jennifer Anderson
Bridezillas (Season 9)
With Newport being a worldwide wedding capital, it's no wonder that Fall River's Jennifer Anderson would bring her bridezilla wedding to Newport, and put herself on the brides behaving badly A-list show on the WE network.
