In last week’s first installment of my weekly discussion, the Pac Northwest and northern Rockies were enjoying a parade of early season snow events while skiers and riders in the Midwest and East had to be content with tuning gear and digesting the state-by-state Covid restrictions rolling out recently. The storms have continued to hit the same general areas that[Read More…]
So It Begins, Unevenly. As is often the case at the start of the ski season, the weather pattern is designating “haves” and “have nots” in terms of sufficiently cold air for snowmaking and natural snow. Consistent with first year La Ninas, as this season will be, November has brought winter weather to the West while the eastern half of[Read More…]
What Does A La Nina Winter Mean For Snow Sports? After seeing a web cam shot of snow-covered Mt. Washington, NH this past weekend, I quickly contracted a case of “calendar shock”, realizing that it was time to submit some ideas on where I think this winter is headed, weatherwise. Co-Publisher Mike Maginn wrote a nice piece on La Nina[Read More…]
Late Season Snow Opens Nordic Opportunities. As the coronavirus situation has continued to unfold and expand, the curtain has all but come down on the alpine season across North America. Nevertheless, lovers of the great outdoors continue to find ways to ingest their fair share of fresh air by a variety of different means, including cross country skiing aficionados. At[Read More…]
For Those Still Venturing Out On Snow Shoes, Skinny Skis, Or Skins. On a typical office day in the winter, I often scan web cams from resorts, living vicariously on those days when I can’t be on the snow myself. Now that the coronavirus pandemic has ground the winter sports season to a virtual halt, I still check out the[Read More…]
March Won’t Be Ending Spring-like. Although I had good intentions, I must confess that I did not get on the snow in the past week. 65 degree temperatures here in Rhode Island early this week didn’t help to inspire, for sure. Much of the East has had a frustrating season, due to a lack of cold and snow, but the[Read More…]
What’s The Matter With The Polar Vortex? The past week brought light to moderate snows to much of the West, including some much needed snow in the Sierra, a region that has missed out on storms for much of this winter. A three-day storm last weekend was very productive from the snow belt areas downwind of the Great Lakes through[Read More…]
Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ The Pattern Persists. In the past two[Read More…]
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ The Potential Exists For “Significant” Snow Events[Read More…]
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ Post-Ground Hog Day Winter Looks Like A[Read More…]
Herb Is Bullish On The Second Half Of This Season. The past week has been another relatively quiet one over the eastern half of the country in terms of fresh snowfall while the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia have again been targeted with substantial new inches. The lack of snow over the Midwest and East has surprised me to a[Read More…]
Looks Like A Promising Couple Of Weeks. It has been a terrific week of skiing and riding in most of the U.S. and Canada and I have been lucky enough to squeeze in a couple of days. Loon Mountain on Tuesday was wonderful; miles and miles of packed powder and views of the White Mountains that are hard to beat.[Read More…]
A Comeback For The East And Midwest, More Pow For The West. I spent the first two days of this week with fellow members of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association at Windham Mountain, NY, where the crew did an outstanding job of providing a fun surface in the wake of a mid-season meltdown last Sunday. One of the presentations[Read More…]
The West Continues To Luck Out, Cold Coming East By Month End. Despite a wildly changeable run of weather in the East recently, I managed to get two days of wonderful winter turns in early this week. It snowed on Monday at Sugarbush as I skied packed powder with my son. Wednesday at Killington surfaces were just about perfect packed[Read More…]
Happy New Year To All Of My Fellow Senior Sliders! In the two weeks since my last post, the western slopes of the U.S. and Canada have been the unquestioned winners in terms of fresh snow. Just prior to Christmas, the trail counts from British Columbia south to the Sangre de Cristos of New Mexico were on the lean side,[Read More…]
Except The West Coast. Last week I discussed the role of upper level troughs as they relate to our insatiable appetite for fresh snow, both natural and machine made. Most of the time, troughs are indeed our friends but that doesn’t necessarily mean that upper level ridges are the enemy. The influence of ridge is just like the old cliche[Read More…]
And Regional Forecasts From West To East. Had my first day on snow last Thursday at Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires. It was a wonderful day on nearly perfect snow: chalky packed powder with some windblown pillows of powder along the edge of several trails. Today, I thought I would tell you about the jet stream feature to look for[Read More…]
By the time this piece is posted, I will have enjoyed my first turns of this season, at Jiminy Peak in the Berkshires. The skiing should be superb after more than two feet of new snow from the early week storm. It was a slow mover and got stretched out from west to east due to a blocking pattern to[Read More…]
Jet Stream Changes Bring In the Chills. Last week I wrote about the “haves and have nots” in terms of favorable early season winter weather. The East was very cold with occasional snow while the West was warm and dry. For the most part, that is still the case, as the eastern Great Lakes and Northeast are in line for[Read More…]
The Difference Between East and West Is Remarkable. Over the past few weeks, I have shared with you some of my winter forecasting tricks of the trade but now it is time to get down to business and do some actual forecasting. The pattern change that was foretold a couple of weeks ago by the re-curvature of a typhoon east[Read More…]
A Negative NAO IS Friendly To Skiers. Right Now, It’s Smiling. During the upcoming winter I will be producing condensed regional forecasts on a weekly basis, hopefully providing readers with another nugget of info before they pick a destination for time on the slopes. I will refer to a number of different reasons for forecasts that you will probably not[Read More…]
The Typhoon Rule Can Predict Chilly Wet Air In North America. In an age where computer models are believed to be the only viable long range weather forecasting tool, there remains a very effective technique for looking ahead a couple of weeks that had its roots in World War Two. It is called the “Typhoon Rule”. When the far western[Read More…]
Snow At The End Of Summer Dazzles The Northwest. How is it that a storm can produce a four foot snowfall before the first week of the new season is over!? That is exactly what happened last weekend as portions of Montana got absolutely buried. Parts of Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Wyoming, and Colorado also saw snow, which undoubtedly got[Read More…]
SeniorsSkiing.com’s New Columnist Places His Bet on 2019-20. [Editor Note: Herb Stevens is a veteran meteorologist and television weatherman. SeniorsSkiing.com is very proud to introduce his new column which will appear weekly throughout the season.] When a long range weather forecaster starts to put together a winter forecast, the first element that has to be assessed is the state of[Read More…]
