Eastern disaster heatwave

Patrick

Active member
I've never seen anything like it in March. 80F today and its been close to 80F since Sunday.

Ski areas are closing at record pace, how many ski areas are still going to make to April? Whiteface and Sutton are closing this weekend.

Normal temps for this time of the year: Hi 39F Low 19F

This has been the shortest Winter I've witnessed. Just 3 months of skiing in the majority of ski areas.
 
I started in late November at Killington on a few trails, continued at Hunter, on very few trails, went on to Alta with limited terrain, Hunter blew tons of snow making it worthwhile to spend a good part of the season there, off to Montana where we got lucky with a few feet, finishing in Utah this weekend...my shortest season..it could have been worse...glad last season was killer...think I'll spend some time hiking more...
 
Not sure how many areas while survived past this weekend. I'm reading some disturbing stuff on the ski forums.

I normally start on late season rundown on who's still running lift in late March/early April. I'm afraid that the list is going to be easy to compile this year. :-(
 
Here in Minneapolis, our high and low temps have been running roughly 25 to 40 degrees F above average for almost 10 days now. Over the weekend, we hit 80 twice (meaning we hit 80 before Vegas this year), evening temps stayed in the 70s, and overnight lows stayed in the 60s. We spent the entire weekend in shorts, t-shirts and sandals. We slept with the windows open and fans running. The ice went out on even the large local lakes at the beginning of this week. Our trees are staring to leaf out (about 6 weeks earlier than usual). I cannot begin to convey how freakishly, freakishly warm this is for us. Our average highs for this time of year are low 40s.

Up on the North Shore of Superior, Lutsen's website recently went from advertising a "guarantee" of staying open to April 15 to "grooming crews continues to push from snow reserves [sic] . . . April skiing will require a change of weather."

Looking at the weather maps it looks like we are sharing this warmth with the East. It is difficult to see how many areas will stay open much longer in the face of this kind of sustained warmth. I note that the fat lady has already sung at MRG.
 
Patrick":3r0fbamv said:
I've never seen anything like it in March. 80F today and its been close to 80F since Sunday.

Ski areas are closing at record pace, how many ski areas are still going to make to April? Whiteface and Sutton are closing this weekend.

Normal temps for this time of the year: Hi 39F Low 19F

This has been the shortest Winter I've witnessed. Just 3 months of skiing in the majority of ski areas.

Yes, this has truly been a freakish "winter" in the Northeast. I've lived here for decades and cannot remember a winter with so little snow and cold weather. My local ski area that normally remains open to early April closed last Sunday and they were skiing on slush with massive bares spots on most trails. I'm surprised that, for safety reasons, they even opened last weekend. Buds are out on most trees, flowers are sprouting, and the grass is turning green. One of the local golf courses already has had the earliest opening in history. My seasonal allergies (mostly tree pollen) that usually don't kick in until May are already bothering me. Let's hope this is NOT a trend. Accuweather.com has an interesting story this morning on possible causes of such unusual weather.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-n ... -wea/63076

I like Henry Magusity's theory that the unusual weather may be due to the huge Tsunami debris field that is moving across the Pacific, causing a rapid warm-up of the Pacific waters that is then affecting weather patterns over North America. Sounds far fetched to me, but who knows?
 
After starting this thread, I converted it into a blog post.

Eastern Ski Disaster and Winter Hating Heatwave
http://madpatski.wordpress.com/2012/03/ ... -heatwave/

Freakish weather you are right flyover. Ottawa isn't really the tropics either. We are having summer time average temps and overnight slows for July. We've been hitting 75-80F (20-25C) degrees weather since Sunday. You would never believe how fast the thin snowpack disappeared in the last 5 days. We have been beating previous record high by 10c.

I skied on Friday and Saturday

Average for this time is +4c with -7c at night.

This might be the first time in 80 years that they will be non-lift served skiing within 100 miles from Ottawa this early in the season. Cascades is the only hill that haven't made an announcement about the weekend. They were still open yesterday with Fortune. They looked fine last weekend as Edelweiss which was a bit thin, but I thought they would have been safe for this weekend.
 
From a pointer someone sent me, I notice that Killington is down to 2 lifts and 13 trails. Sugarbush is in similar shape with 2 of 16 lifts and 26 of 111 trails.
 
As of 4pm today New York is down to:

Whiteface, Hunter, Belleayre, Holimont, and Royal Mountain - unless it has changed since the last time I checked a few hours ago.

Last year on this date there were 23 mountains open, and several lasted for 2-3 more weeks.
 
This was perhaps the worst season on the EC ever. I picked the right season to have not been able to ski. On a side note, my friend just came back from 3 weeks in New Zealand and they are complaining that it's been the cold summer ever.
 
With overcast and rainy weather in the forecast for the weekend , I just might do the unthinkable and call it a season by March 24 ! Now that is a record as usually crank out about 30 days going to the end of April or the beginning of May , this year 18 . Natural snow is all gone in our area ( except for isolated pockets ) , just the machine plastered groomers hanging in . Going to be a long off season .
 
I'm going to Edelweiss on Saturday for the Ski Club BBQ. It was suppose to include a fun race, but as you know, Edelweiss and the rest of the locals are done. I might bring some skis. The closest skiing is in the Laurentians and Lake Placid. After this weekend when the closer to average get here, not many ski areas would have survived...might last for a few weeks. I'm hearing that SR and the loaf might blow some snow.

What i've noticed is the major ski areas with a snowmaking base around Quebec City have survived. Le Massif is done on Sunday. Places in Gaspesie reknown for its snow like Val d'Irène and Miller have shutdown. Sutton just had it's shortest season which is finishing on Sunday and earliest closing day since it opened in 1960-61. 100 days and a March 25 closing. The previous lows where in 117 days in 1997-98 when the ice storm hit and it was a major crisis for weeks. 1980-81 was the only other year Sutton closed in March, on the 31th.

I have to be in Montreal on Monday, I might take advantage of it and go skiing on Sunday...on simply catch up on my blog. I know Tony would like to see those Alps TRs from last Summer + Andes 2011 pics. :D
 
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