Leave Me Alone....I'm Grumpy

I have been keeping busy, but not with the activities that I should be doing. I spend way too much tome looking at weather models and data. I look at it continuosly, thinking it might change if I look at it one more time. It does look like a hint of a weather change is in the future.........unfortunately it may not take place until the end of the first week of January.
The happening things include the following........1) El Nino waters continue to cool.....2)A shift or breakdown of the Bering Sea Vortex which has resulted in warm Pacific air overtaking the country and keeping the cold air locked up in Canada........3) A shift in the Polar Vortex which has been stuck on The Asian side for the last 7 weeks.
All of this info does not show severe or extreme cold, but certainly seasonal cold........and that is all I ask for.......
ed

Temporary Setback

Well, it certainly is a BLUE Christmas Holiday Season for those of us who enjoy winter. That wonderful shot of winter that we received the first week of December is nothing more than a fleeting memory. Since that time we seen a 19 day stretch of warm weather. In that span the overnight lows have averaged 33 degrees...... that is warmer than the normal highs that you would expect this time of year. The calendar still says there is more than 2 monthes of winter ahead of us. Maybe it is because I was raised as a Cub fan, but you accept the current failures and look forward to what lies ahead.......so do not give up on winter......it is coming.
ed

I Missed It

I certainly did not see this coming. Or maybe I did not want to see it coming. Here we sit one day before winter's arrival and the weather is certainly anything but. The Pattern that we saw over the last month is not going to repeat itself. A repeat would have given us a snowstorm followed by about 10 days of cold weather. It truly would have been a winter delight.
Instead we are entering a rain event that will not see cold air surging into our area after the storm exits. The mild El Nino wins another one and it is going to be a rough couple weeks for ski areas in my part of the wolrd.
For those of us who enjoy winter, there is one thread of hope to grab onto. There has been talk of El Nino weakening and a couple of days ago we saw the first temperature drop in the El Nono waters. Even if it was a small drop, it was still the first since early September. A weaking El Nino(if in fact the trend continues) often leads to a return of winter in our region. Let's hang onto that for now.
ed

I Missed It

I certainly did not see this coming. Or maybe I did not want to see it coming. Here we sit one day before winter's arrival and the weather is certainly anything but. The Pattern that we saw over the last month is not going to repeat itself. A repeat would have given us a snowstorm followed by about 10 days of cold weather. It truly would have been a winter delight.
Instead we are entering a rain event that will not see cold air surging into our area after the storm exits. The mild El Nino wins another one and it is going to be a rough couple weeks for ski areas in my part of the wolrd.
For those of us who enjoy winter, there is one thread of hope to grab onto. There has been talk of El Nino weakening and a couple of days ago we saw the first temperature drop in the El Nono waters. Even if it was a small drop, it was still the first since early September. A weaking El Nino(if in fact the trend continues) often leads to a return of winter in our region. Let's hang onto that for now.
ed

Seth

We have just received beautiful 6" dump fo new snow........all powder......... Unfortunately there is now base under it as 2 days ago it was 70 degrees. We did start making snow last night and will continue to do so as cold weather is befriending us!
As wonderful as this all is, we still have a somber air around the area as we have lost a dear frined. Fourteen year old Seth Aswege was lost yesterday in a tragic car accident on his way to school in a heavy rainstorm. Seth and his family have been a fixture at the area for years and will be sadly missed. His family is creating a memorial fund that will be used to create some sort of terrain feature/observation deck in his memory. The slopes is where Seth loved to spend his winters and his presence will be preserved in this manner. Numerous fundraisers and rail jam memorabilia are in the planning. Our thoughts are with his family.