The sun continues to be a mystical feature that isn’t often seen, but every couple of days we get a nice view and moment of warmth before the next cool/moist airmass settles in.
Yesterday was one of those days – a stunning bluebird day for many — and we’ll have a bit more today before a cold front comes in with some showers and even a couple thunderstorms possible.
We are back to cooler conditions for Wednesday, with a fair amount of cloud cover remaining, along with some hefty upslope snows expected. In the favored slopes we could see 6-12″ from late tonight into Thursday morning. Highest amounts are expected in the NEK.
The sun gradually returns later Thursday into early Friday before clouds come back ahead of more rain expected on Saturday and Sunday. While the rain puts a damper on late spring skiing, the moisture is rather necessary as some areas remain in a drought from the fall.
This will be the last blog for many as forecasting seasons come to a close through April/May. As noted in my “seasonal farewell” email, this was quite a different winter as compared to the last several years. My first winter taking over for Tony was 18-19 — probably the best winter in the last decade in terms of natural snow and sustained cold. This past one is a not-so-close second. It had the cold, but the natural snow was lacking outside of upslope favored slopes and the wind was brutal. In client meetings prior to the season, we spoke about what a neutral ENSO cycle might look like – and that local, regional effects would have more influence in a neutral year. The abundant orographic/lake effect snows displayed just that. Next winter looks to remain close to neutral as well.
Also mentioned is that this year, we have “End of Season” analyses available to summarize temperatures, potential snowmaking hours, and hours spent in specific wet-bulb ranges (if your winter forecasting is ongoing, you’ll see this in your farewell 24-25 email). These can also be customized if there are other variables you’d like analyzed as well.
We have quite a bit in the works for summer development of Snowmaker, and I’m excited to share more about that with you in summer meetings. I plan to attend the Ski Vermont & Ski NH trade shows in June, and SANY/PA show in September (I’ll be missing the NE Ski Summit for a half marathon in Montana). I look forward to seeing you all and catching up over the warm season.