It was only 2 Tuesdays ago that we were talking about the 5 feet of snow that had fallen over the prior 2 weeks at Stowe. The conditions were the best of the season in the Northeast with a decent base, powder in the trees, and cold temperatures. Then the the season changed from Winter to Spring for a week, and now as the official Spring starts today Summer has moved in.
The average high temperature in Stowe for the first 18 days of the month is 34-39 degrees. Today the temperature hit 79 making it 3 days in a row in the 70’s. Most record highs for this time of year are around 60 degrees. If you think that is warm look at the forecast for the next 2 days, into the 80’s!!!
Where do we normally see a forecast like this in March? Orlando Florida…
On the mountains temperatures will be about 10 degrees cooler in the 70’s. It’s not uncommon to see warmer temperatures in March and April and the melting of the snow, but the snow is melting at a record pace. Take a look at what Mount Mansfield looked like 2 weeks ago.
Now you will be carving down the slopes through mashed potatoes dodging many of these…
The long-range forecast models saw this coming and I talked about it coming in the last discussion 2 weeks ago. Usually the when you see a large ridge over the East like this there is a large trough in the West with cold and snow for CA which gave me confidence the big snow was coming to Tahoe last week. What is interesting this season is that the warmest temperatures compared to average in the Northern hemisphere have been centered over the Northeast most of the season.
There will be colder air moving in for the weekend with highs only in the 40’s on the mountains and even a chance for snow showers Sunday night. Then back into the 50’s next week before possibly a bigger cold shot the second half of next week. It is on March 20th and we can see cold shots with snow well into April in the Northeast. The question is will there be any snow left or even enough to stay open by the time the colder temperatures arrive or if snow shows up?
Stowe is scheduled to stay open until April 22nd and I’m sure they are hoping at least until Easter weekend the first week of April. The race is on as the snow will continue to melt rapidly and any cold or snow in the coming weeks may be too little too late. At this point there would most likely need to be a pretty big snow storm to keep the resorts open into April. Looking at the long-range forecast over the next couple of weeks there are no big storms in sight right now. This may be the last post on the Northeast this season unless a miracle storm shows up. BA