Snowy Ending to North American East Coast Ski Season

Ski areas in Eastern Canada and USA are reporting bumper snowfalls in the build up to the Easter Holiday period.

It’s a much better picture than the build up to Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year holidays at the start of the season when they struggled to open much terrain with limited natural snowfall and temperatures too warm for snowmaking.

That continued to be the story through much of this season although good snowfalls did arrive in January, however there were also repeated warm wet spells. But most of the larger ski areas in the region currently have most of their slopes open.

Now that spring’s here though, it’s finally full-on winter.

Vermont’s Smugglers' Notch Resort has reported 32” (80cm) this week and 53” (132cm) of snowfall in the past fortnight, there’s been another 6” (15cm) in the past 24 hrs

Up in Quebec, a spokesperson for Massif du Sud ski area commented,

“Today in the storm was without a doubt THE best day of the season so far! We're not just talking about rush and snow quality, we're also talking about a 100% mountain opening! We were all looking forward to it, and many didn't even expect it anymore... and now it's happening! 25cm  down today and another 20cm expected by Saturday.”

Some models for the current El Nino weather conditions predicted a cold, snowy season for the East, theorising that resulting currents should draw down cold Arctic air, but that didn’t often happen and there’s been plenty of warm air too.

Most ski areas in the region plan to close either after the Easter weekend or the first weekend in April, most by April 14th.  Some smaller, lower centres have already closed though, some early due to the season long conditions.

Up to 18” (45cm) more snowfall is forecast for the region this weekend.