Industry News
It’s 60ºF at 12,000-Feet in Colorado right now!! It’s going to be so hot in Colorado’s low country this week that NOAA has issued a Hazardous Weather Warning:
"THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT WARM AND DRY CONDITIONS WILL PREVAIL TODAY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY BREEZY CONDITIONS ACROSS THE FAR NORTHEAST PLAINS ON SUNDAY WILL COMBINE WITH WARM TEMPERATURES AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES TO KEEP THE FIRE DANGER SOMEWHAT ELEVATED IN THOSE AREAS." - NOAA, Denver/Boulder, CO
Loveland ski resort, CO or Arapahoe Basin, CO are often the first and second ski resorts open in the USA these days.
Last year, A-Basin was the first to open on October 17th.  In 2013, it was A-Basin again on October 13th.
This year, Colorado might not end up being the first to open up.
Temperatures are HOT in Colorado right now and they’re forecast to stay that way. Arapahoe Basin can’t make snow right now and they don’t plan to make any snow this week:
“Well, not much to update on the weather, unless you are into beautiful biking weather. I had a very nice mountain bike ride out behind the house this morning. It looks like we have several more very sunny, warm days in front of us. We continue to be poised and ready to make snow. When the time comes, we will jump. The temps just need to drop. Stay tuned and enjoy these spectacular fall days” – Alan Henceroth, COO & Vice-President of Arapahoe Basin, CO today
Did we mention… It’s 60ºF at 12,000-Feet in Colorado right now!! And the forecast at 12,000-feet in Colorado for the next 7 days is showing lows around 35ºF every night. That means no snowmaking at all this week.
"THE MAJORITY OF THE WEEK WILL BE DOMINATED BY STRONG HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT AND LITTLE IN THE WAY OF ANY QG DYNAMICS. ANOTHER PUSH OF SHALLOW COOL AIR IS FORECAST TO SLIDE ACROSS THE PLAINS THURSDAY ...BUT AGAIN THIS WILL LIKELY ONLY KNOCK A COUPLE OF DEGREES OFF THE TEMPERATURES THERE AS WELL AS REVERSING THE LOW LEVEL PRESSURE GRADIENT." - NOAA, Denver/Boulder, CO
Some forecasts are keeping this high heat in Colorado’s high country for 10 more days. Accuweather doesn’t think Arapahoe Basin will have snowmaking temperatures until the 18th of October. Hopefully Snowmaking can begin at A-Basin and Loveland around the 18th, but they’ll need still need 10-14 more days to get enough fake snow on the ground to open.
If you’re waiting for Loveland or A-Basin to open in the next 10 days, think again. It takes 10-14 days of snowmaking for A-Basin to get one run open – the High Noon trail. If they can’t start operating until October 18th, that means they’d be open on October 29th at the earliest. That’s basically 3 weeks from now…
It might be time to look to other ski areas to open first this year. Sunday River, ME? Wild Mountain, MN? Killington, VT? Bueller?
Timberline,OR is always the first to open but it won’t be this year.