Hopeful weather coming soon!!
Looking back to late October early November, it feels like forever ago that we got our first true snowstorm of the season. Since that 6 inches of magnificently fresh snow fell, we snow lovers have been on the edge of our seats waiting for the temps to drop and the resorts to open with enough skiing, riding, snowshoeing, and so much more for the whole family.
As we look to the future and start to think about an opening date, all of us are hoping that the temperatures will drop and stay cold, but this winter’s weather, like this year, is looking to be unpredictable and crazy. While Bolton Valley gets everything in preparation to open as soon as weather permits us, we came across some interesting information that we want to share with our beloved Bolton Valley community.
The Northern Hemisphere 2020-2021 winter has a 95% chance of being affected by a La Nina weather pattern, according to NOAA. La Nina is when cold waters come up from the deeps of the ocean and push warm waters eastwards. This has an effect of changing the directions of the jet streams across the United States, and for this year, it means that cooler temperatures will be brought through the northern half of the country.
When diving deeper into NOAA’s three-month prediction, the Farmer’s Almanac, and also meteorologist’s winter prediction’s, there is still a lot of hope for northern Vermont Ski areas. It seems like, across the board, everyone is predicting warmer temperatures and higher than normal precipitation this winter.
So what does this means for Bolton Valley? If we break it down, the average temperatures in Vermont for December, January, and February are all below or at freezing. We all know that Bolton Valley’s temperatures usually run colder because of our 2000ft base elevation. Even if the predictions are right and temperatures are higher than normal, we could still have a chance to hover around freezing and hopefully even below. This leads us into the hopes of the higher chance of precipitation being correct. If the temperatures stay cool enough and the precipitation raises, that means Vermont and Bolton Valley can see a couple of really great powder days in our future.
Looking towards the future, we are hopeful that our close connections such as Northeast Skiology, a weather-predicting Facebook group, are true about some of their most recent posts. “Next week’s storm marks a change in the weather pattern that should give all Northeast resorts a near-optimal pattern stretching into at least mid-month,” said Northeast Skiology. “At this time of season, given the near-complete lack of snow cover, most resorts need cold temperatures more than they need natural snow, and this should deliver extensive snowmaking windows starting on December 2nd, and potentially some lasting natural snowpack as well.”
So cross your fingers folks, flush ice cubes down the toilet and wear your pajamas backward because we have a really good chance of those predictions coming true.