Mondays are never fun, and even more so when there is a lack of snow. The weekend’s temps weren’t as kind as I was hoping they would be on Friday and it’s showing this morning on the web cams. The good news is that this week is going to be a roller coaster in terms of the weather we’re at the low point right now. Things will be looking quite differently by the end of the week.
The good news…it is a beautiful morning! I can’t find a single cloud on any of the webcams. There’s some pesky inversions though which are never a good thing. It’s currently 43 degrees atop Sugar and 30 down in little old Foscoe, which is a good 2,000 feet lower in elevation. This isn’t a ski cam, but the Grandfather Mountain view cam is one of my favorites and it is glorious this morning.
The view from the top of Sugar Mountain is also rather gorgeous this morning.
With that sunshine though comes warmer temps and today and tomorrow is going to do a number on an already thinning base at Cat and Sugar. As Mike mentioned yesterday, it’s all about dat base and dat base is running out. The base shot at Sugar looks rough and the sides are creeping in at Cat. I hate being the bearer of bad news but it is what it is and Ski Southeast likes to tell it like it is. Early November is always a crapshoot in terms of the weather. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cat and/or Sugar have to close down for a day or two. At least it’s the middle of the week though and most people will be working.
Don’t fret too much, there is hope. Lots of hope actually. The second half of this week is the beginning of an extended period of cold. Like real cold for November. And we can all thank the Polar Vortex!
Haaa. Yeah I’m just kidding. It’s not the polar vortex that is going to cause this cold snap. I found that image on Imgur and thought it was funny and had to post it. Hopefully any meteorologists who read this find it funny.
Anyways, an Arctic front moves in Thursday and snowmaking should resume then. In fact, we could be looking at around the clock snowmaking for Thursday, Friday, MAYBE Saturday, and MAYBE Sunday. Nighttime snowmaking is assured. This is when we’ll see a lot of resorts fire up the snow guns, not just Sugar and Cat. I’ve been speculating with my friends about potential additional openings for this weekend, but I’ll keep those to myself for now. The forecast looks good into next week as well (potentially even some snow, POTENTIALLY), so if we don’t see another round of openings this weekend, I’m thinking next weekend we will.
I’m getting ahead of myself now. It’s only Monday and I’m already talking about next weekend! I’m just so stoked and ready for consistent cold and snow. The beginning of the season is always like this. You get a taste of snow like I did last weekend and you want more but it warms up for a bit. ALWAYS HAPPENS. It’s on the way though.
Think cold and snow.