Monday, November 9, 2009

Enough to Shovel?

Cooler weather has been in place over the weekend in the wake of Friday's cold front.  Looking at the resort cams I can see that Northstar fired up the snowmaking system overnight.  Cooler weather will stay in place today and tomorrow with some clouds tomorrow as a piece of energy from a trough digging off the coast moves to our North.  Highs will be around 50 at the lake and the 40's on the Mtn.

The storm for midweek that we have been talking about is still on track.  A cold front associated with a storm off of British Columbia is going to move through the area starting Wednesday.  Snow levels will start around 7000 ft. during the day but fall quickly below lake level as the precip begins to fall Wed. night.  The model trend over the weekend has been for the storm to dig a little further and to slow down.  This would mean higher amounts of snow.  Models are struggling however with the amounts of snow.  Last evenings models had as much as over 6 inches from top to bottom.  The midnight models backed off to 1-3 inches, and this mornings models are back to around 3-6 inches of snow by Thursday.  Hopefully we can get a better handle on amounts by tomorrow morning, but it looks as if we will get more than a dusting, so it could be our biggest snowfall so far this season.

Cold and unsettled air will be in the area through Friday, so the resort should be able to make snow on top of whatever falls on Wed./Thrus.  Clouds and additional snow showers won't be ruled out either.  A ridge will begin to build over CA for the weekend ahead of a large trough building off the coast in the Pacific.  This trough and associated storm will be gathering lots of moisture and aiming for the West Coast.  This is what we have been looking for to happen in the pattern next week.  It is too early to get into details, but the next storm for the middle of next week has the potential to be cold and snowy, possibly bringing our first dump.  This could be the beginning of a period of cold snowy storms lining up to hit the West Coast.  Everything as far as teleconnection pattern forecasts are still in our favor for this pattern to set up.  Keep doing the snow dances.........BA

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