FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports01.19.12 Ski Report Is Here!

01.19.12 Ski Report Is Here!

Ahh it feels good to get into the rhythm of things.

I've moved to being morning meteorologist at the station and I am still in the process of getting my graphics, order of operation, and schedule in order.  (This does include an attempt at a 6 pm bedtime too!)

I decided to blog about the ski report and forecast on this fine and sunny Thursday.  We get the latest ski reports every Thursday-Sunday at about 7 a.m. here in our newsroom.  With it being Thursday, I figured it's a good time to relay those reports to you in a nice, convenient, and eye-appealing graphical display of what's going on.

Okay enough yadda yadda talk, here's what is shaping up across the mountains!

Before going further, I do want to mention the left black column is the snow resorts have received in the last 7 days.  On the right-hand-side are the number of trails open (out of total trails) and the surface condition.  "Gran" is short for granular, "pwdr" is short for powder, and "frzn" is short for frozen. 

The ski resorts have had one of their best seven-day stretches of the year in this last week.  We had two big weather events that added up some of the highest short-term totals.  It is nice to see a lot of resorts reporting more than a foot or snow in the last week.

It's looking favorable for more good conditions in the near-term forecast. The current weather pattern is very active, with a few chances of getting snow in the next several days.

The first storm is set to hit the area Thursday night (tonight). This storm will originate from the dry land, so moisture will be limited.  But there is good news: Cold temperatures.  Since temperatures will be near 10 degrees at night, the snow ratio will be very high, yielding numerous inches for little liquid.  We're looking at 2-4 inches from the first storm.

There is uncertainty for the second storm labeled SAT.  That storm is walloping the west with feet and feet of snow in the interior mountains.  It is going to continue to ride along the jet stream and be here by Saturday.  However it looks like the bulk of the moisture will pass just south of our area, through Connecticut and Rhode Island.  I expect about 2-3 inches with that storm too.

From Thursday through Saturday, I expect the mountains to get 3 to 6 fresh inches of powder.  Temperatures will range from 0 degrees at night, to 15 degrees during the day.  It will be a bit windy so I do anticipate some chilly riding.  However ski resorts to the south stand a better chance at tapping into up to 8 inches by Saturday, if that storm passes close enough.  The northern mountains will be on the lower end of the scale, most likely around 4 inches (next few days).

Hope you enjoy the weekend, and get a chance to go snowboarding or skiing.  I'll give another mountain update and forecast next Thursday.