Making Snow Already?

Arapahoe Basin has fired up their snow-making equipment.

It's true. Arapahoe Basin snowmaking machines were blowing the white stuff. The last couple nights the temperature dropped below freezing. One night it got down to 25 degrees! It's mind-blowing to me to imagine snow in the month of September, man-made or not.

I know you hard-core skiing types are cheering the news but don't strap'em on quite yet. The machines were indeed making snow but not to fill runs, they were testing the equipment.  According to Alan Henceroth, Arapahoe Basin Chief Operating Officer, "It wasn't a big night, but it was a very productive and important night...It is good to run the system and work out any kinks. A snowmaking system has miles and miles of machines and equipment...Testing is good, running the system under real conditions is even better. The objective is to be fully ready when we get that 36 hour period of temperatures in the teens. We will be ready."

It could be a big year for skiers. This winter is an El Niño year and ski resorts across Colorado are all cheering the possibility of more snow. After last year's dismal snowpack, the thought of higher-than-normal snowfalls has everyone excited.

The jury is out on just how much more snow Colorado will get. Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a 70% of an El Niño for the winter of 2018-19. Tom Di Liberto, a meteorologist with NOAA, said it’s still too early to say for sure what the strength of this type of climate variation will look like. "As we move into the fall, our models and the ocean-atmosphere conditions will be clearer and we can better determine how strong the El Niño will be,” he says ”The stronger the El Niño, the more consistent with the general pattern of an El Niño this winter will be.”

Credit: Summit Daily News