Not quite the end of the 2012 N. Hemisphere season...
It's snowing again! Summer is on hold as hundreds of Alpine ski resorts report deep, fresh powder so dust off your skis and wax your boards. Of course if you receive our snowmails or read our online editorials this won't be news to you, but more about weird unseasonal weather to follow...
New Site Features If you've used Snow-Forecast for a while, you will have seen all the new features added before the start of each season. The next batch of innovations will go live once the northern ski season finally gives up. We'll be moving to a faster server then too. Don't forget that you can take our site on the road via our snow iPhone and mobile web apps. If you miss the snow too much during the summer months, check out our snow photo gallery or enter our photo competition (details at the botom of this page). Besides working on Snow-Forecast for the past 12 years, our team of web designers, physicists and weather gurus have developed four other websites that you may not be aware of. We hope that one or more of these will be of interest you. They are all 100% free. For Mountaineers First, for all skiers and boarders who venture away from ski resorts, as well as all climbers and hill walkers, find detailed forecasts for 10,000 mountains at Mountain-Forecast.com. Just like Snow-Forecast, we generate elevation-specific forecasts using the same innovative methods. From the Chamonix valley to the top of Mt-Blanc, from deep gorges in Nepal to the 8000m+ summits that tower above them, you can find detailed forecasts at famous and not so famous mountains every 1000m in altitude. Next time you think it's cold and windy where you're skiing, check the Everest summit forecast.
For Surfers Our team are all keen surfers and love to try and combine surfing and snowboarding on the same day wherever possible. Surf-Forecast.com was created with this in mind and now has a rapidly growing worldwide community of surfers and windsurfers who rely on it. After six years of development, we're sure it's the best forecast resource on the web for global surfers and windsurfers. It's totally free too, and a mobile app will be available very soon. If you are a skier or a snowboarder and have never surfed, head over to the Surf Photo Gallery and be inspired to give surfing a go. Our wavefinder will guide you to the best conditions.
City Weather For the less intrepid amongst us, Weather-Forecast.com provides free detailed 9 day weather forecasts, live weather reports and weather maps for over 100,000 locations around the world; from big City Break destinations to remote villages in the Peruvian jungle.
High Tide You can't develop a surf website without getting to grips with tides, but how about all those places around the world that experience ocean tides are not surfing locations? Another project? Why not? Yachtsmen and mariners use our last website, tide-forecast.com to get accurate tidal, wind and weather predictions and more for thousands of coastal places worldwide. Last, we have seen a big increase in the number of outdoor enthusiasts submitting content to our various sites. Thanks to everyone who has taken time to submit. Coldest May for 100 Years... Many northern hemisphere ski resorts already closed for the season at Easter and are currently missing out on a return of winter-like conditions. The mountains of western and central Europe, as well as large parts of North America, including west coast areas that had a poor winter snow season are all seeing fresh snow. Our 9-day forecast confirms that unseasonal Alpine snowfalls will continue for at least another week, with some Swiss resorts seeing over half a metre of fresh snow in the next few days, accompanied by low freezing levels more typical of mid-February than late April. Check our new country-specific ski summaries, compiled from 1600+ snow reports every day, to see where the lifts are still running. (IMAGE : Champéry Webcam, 19th April 2012) Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere, there is still time to buy season passes at pre-season discounts, typically of 30-50%. These deals usually expire at the end of April and are good contingency against the exorbitant day-pass prices at some ski resorts. After historically significant snowfalls in places like Wellington last winter, New Zealand has continued to experience a long run of downright weird weather. A cold and wet summer over the north and east, was punctuated by record-breaking floods in places and included no fewer than five heavy snowfalls on the Seaward Kaikouras. The last one, six weeks ago, delivered enough snow for a few days of skiing at several Canterbury ski fields, including Mount Hutt. The portents for a bumper ski season looked good, but since then it has been mostly warm and sunny and that's how NZ stays next week. Autumn feels much more like summer than summer did. Across the Tasman, places like Sydney had a miserable, cool and wet summer too. Hailstorms turned the Blue Mountains white at times. Much of this oddness was pinned on the La Niña pattern that dominated last ski season. La Niña fizzled out about a month ago and we may well see an El Nino pattern emerging soon, albeit weak at first. This would mean more frequent snow-bearing SW winds for New Zealand this winter. Photo Competition We have three £50 Amazon vouchers up for grabs, plus 10 Snow-Forecast.com T-shirts for runners up. All you have to do is upload your best shots to our gallery that were taken in ski resorts during the 2011/12 season. There's no limit on the number you can submit. The closing date is 31st May 2012 and the winner will be chosen by the snow-forecast.com photo editors. Click here to upload your snow photos
We hope you enjoy our other websites, and look forward to seeing you next season! The Snow-Forecast.com team Copyright © 2012 Snow-Forecast.com Ltd., All rights reserved. Snow-Forecast.com HQ |
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Kudos to resorts like Cairngorm who have re-opened for
skiing after a long period without enough snow. We don't provide very long-range
forecasts, but some meteorologists that do are now suggesting that Arctic winds
across Western Europe will make the month of May the coldest in the last 100
years.
Nearest