As we come off of a long duration snowstorm, our sights are set on what’s coming next. In previous blogs, we’ve been talking about an arctic outbreak, along with a moderation, and a continued volatile pattern until mid to late December. That’s our next few weeks in a nutshell.
After the coastal system departs, we’ll have a few rounds of cold air blasts to come in. The snow pack now on the ground, especially in New York and S. Vermont will have an impact on temperatures, most notably at night.
Snow showers return to the forecast Wednesday ahead of a cold front coming through Thursday morning. While we stay seasonably cool prior to the front, we receive a reinforcing blast of cold air through the day Thursday, with likely falling temperatures.
There won’t be many temperature readings that are outside of snowmaking ranges, but if there were anything marginal, this cold front will bring back the cold. We’ll also have upslope snow showers and long-range lake effect snow showers bringing an inch or two to Wildcat, Mount Snow and Hunter.
Lucky for us, right ahead of the weekend, we may have a clipper come through with a quick shot of snow Friday night into Saturday morning. There could be a few hours of moderate snow as shown in the European model depiction to the right.
Behind this comes another shot of cold – not the coldest air of the season but Saturday will not warm very effectively. This may allow our PA resorts to get some solid snowmaking nights in over the 12/8-9 weekend.
Wind picks up and shifts to the southwest on Sunday, prompting our first decent moderation in 1-2 weeks. This moderate holds looks to hold through around 12/11, when we’ll likely see some heavy rain (could be followed by snow as well) come with with a strong cold front. Behind this, another blast of arctic air comes in, and we begin the pattern all over again.
So the rollercoaster ride continues, and I believe we’ll stop seeing the larger extremes heading toward the end of the month. There are no major warmups in sight at this point in time, though we’ll have a period from 12/9-11 where we may see some warmer air and the chance for rain.