Depression sets in

[mikesathome]

All southern Michigan ski areas are closed, and will be for at least a week or more, as rain and warm weather is on tap.

A few northern lower Michigan ski areas are open on man made snow, but rain and warm temperatures are going to make it a challenge to keep them open.

Some of the UP ski areas are doing better, but still mostly man made snow.

I am going to start selling some new bumper stickers
They will read: Stupid El Nino!

Midwest Snow Lovers can find some more detailed winter weather forecasts at John Dee

[JimG.]

I feel your pain.

Things aren't much better here in the East...getting sick of skiing the same limited number of lines over and over.

I remember seasons with bad starts like this, but never anything worse. And if it keeps up for another week or two (much as the forecast indicates) it will be the worst start to winter I've ever experienced.

I haven't posted much here...nothing to post about.

Depressing is a good description.

[Tony Crocker]

Hard to blame any of the weather of the past two months on El Nino. In fact the entire weather pattern of the past two months has looked like classic La Nina with the massive dumps in PNW and western Canada and the dry Southwest. Since we know that the actual eastern Pacific condition is mild-to-moderate El Nino, recent weather can classified as random volatility, or &@!# happens, depending on where you live.

[mikesathome]

El Nino is just a simple excuse I am using.
I believe weather forecasts as much as a ski resorts current conditions page

[Tony Crocker]

Standard weather forecasting tends to be very good for a couple of days, of some use 3-5 days out, and fantasyland more than a week out.

El Nino/La Nina is the opposite. According to Larry Schick it's the only useful info over a longer period of time, like a whole ski season. But it's basically irrelevant in the short term. And we've just observed that "the short term" can be a month or two. Even in extreme cases like 1998 El Nino will validate in only about half of the months.