Western Weather 2015-16

Tony Crocker":1dd109np said:

the only answers I got were, "We've been doing it this way for 10 years", "If it's not broke, don't fix it", and "Tradition", which are all basically the same answer.

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Good thing they don't work for my team or my company. They'd be out the door in short order with that mentality.

Still hasn't warmed up all that much in the flatlands really. Temps mostly in the 50's and 60's this week and another 4+ day slow moving storm upcoming. Temps jumping to upper 70's or 80's are always shown in the forecast 7-10 days away, then get adjusted down. been that way for the last several weeks. That kind of trend will keep Abasin open till at least early June and I would guess at least one 'bonus' weekend at this point, though that has yet to be announced.

EMSC":o2cupict said:

Good thing they don't work for my team or my company. They'd be out the door in short order with that mentality.

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Nice to hear from a Front Range local that I'm not missing something here.

EMSC may also remember that both his group of friends and this group chose to schedule at Jackson in early March 2015, with results that some of us predicted well in advance. :roll:

Colorado is really standing out this spring. The PNW and western Canada led in western snowfall most of the season, but both had warm and dry Aprils and are melting down prematurely. Sierra and Utah spring snowpacks are also well below average now due to the warm first half of April.

Ski season will continue for a few more weeks (at least) in Colo, but I'm done and going to be on the beach in a few days myself, so thought I'd post the annual SWE charts for a couple of the water basin's.

A good start but bad end in the southern colo mountains. This best represents Wolf Creek and probably also northern NM. avery odd year for an El Nino year in that region.


The Upper colo had a nearly exactly average season all around. Best represents Vail, Beaver Creek, Breck, Copper, Winter Park


Then there is the South Platte which also nearly matched average all season long until the very end with some better than average April/May storms. Best represents Loveland, Abasin, Eldora.


Data from:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/co/snow/products/?cid=nrcs144p2_063323

Note the flat curve February/March in EMSC's top graph. Taos had 9 inches of snow from February 4 - March 29, and 42 inches after it closed April 3.

ABasin has announced that they will reopen for an additional weekend June 10-12 after running daily through this coming weekend.

Additionally, Aspen will reopen this coming weekend. Not sure if that is Ajax or Highlands though.

I'm a little surprised at how fast Snowbird vanished this season: