Fresh Snow after Worst Start to Season For 33 Years in Colorado

There’s been much needed fresh snow in Western states Colorado, Utah and California over the weekend.

The states, and most of their neighbours, have seen very little snow all season and struggled to open much terrain over the crucial Christmas and New Year holiday period.

With some people claiming the season is seeing its worst start in the area for up to 50 years, the consensus is that in Colorado at least, it has been the worst start to winter for 33 seasons.

More fresh snow, typically 15-30cm, is expected over the next three days across the region.

Steamboat in Colorado claims to currently have the most terrain open in Colorado, at around 80% of the total, crediting partly the fresh snow but mostly its snowmaking systems.

Mammoth Mountain in California (pictured top) did get some good snowfalls in November and has claimed a base of around 50-150cm ever since, and also says it has the most terrain open in the USA, which appears to include the country’s biggest area, Park City in Utah which currently reports only 71 of its 347 trails open with a base on open runs of between 51 and 86cm.

Further north along the Canadian border and in to Canada itself conditions are better with more snowfall and more open terrain, although it is not so far more than an average season.

The East and Midwest of the USA is currently experiencing record low temperatures which has brought with it unusually big snowfalls at time in states not used to getting as much as they are doing, in modern times at least, such as Pennsylvania.

So the main issue here has not been too little snow but temperatures so low that ski areas have had to close at times as it was too cold for machinery to operate or skiers to stay outdoors for long safely.