No snowmaking at Loveland or A-Basin yet and the 10 day forecast seems to indicate that there will be none before October 18.
If they start blowing snow on 10/18, A-Basin and Loveland will be lucky to open in October. I don't recall a November opening for either. It may date to pre-snowmaking times.
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/l/80424:4:US
The start of the season is looking very bad.
The 10 day seems to indicate that snowmaking could start on 10/20 at the earliest. IMO that precludes Loveland from opening in October. I don't think they can get 1000 feet of vert covered in 10 days for chair one to operate..
A-Basin only needs to get 600 feet of vert covered to allow use of Black Mountain Express. They might make it before the end of the month.
Of course one big storm could change the equation, but there's nothing on the horizon to indicate that a storm is coming.
My Spin is all of my friends who live there get in 80+ days a season. Even Local to DC a person can get in 50 +.
Winter happens.
El Nino expected to peak late Nov.
link below is 3 months composites - El Nino
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/ENSO/composites/EC_ENS_index.shtml
Brutal, and I plan on spending some time at Loveland later this year. I'm sure it will get better but still this is an unfortunate harbinger.
My wife went to CO for the first time last month and among other things hiked along the ridge from Loveland Pass, it is so interesting to see those pictures without the snow that I am used to in Feb...I'll try and post a pair of them
current 10 day forecast sucks for summit county.
Sunday river announced 1 slope ribbon of death opening oct 19 - forecast there is significantly better.
Maybe its a new england kind of year.
If the longer term forecast is correct, there will be no October skiing in Summit County, and Keystone's forecast November 6 opening is in doubt.
"The total precipitation during the unsettled period from (10/18) Saturday through Tuesday will be around 1-2 inches in southwestern Colorado and around 0.5 inches in central and northern Colorado (see map below). With high snow levels, this will translate to perhaps ~10+ inches in the southwestern mountains above 11,000-12,000 feet. For the central and northern mountains, the best chance of accumulating snow will occur from Monday night through Tuesday night with perhaps 3-6 inches over 9,000-10,000 feet. ..Following our storm, next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday should be dry. Temperatures will be crisp on Wednesday but by Friday we’ll be back to warmer-than-average weather. This is a bummer for snowmaking which will likely have a good run on Tuesday and Wednesday but will likely be curtailed by the end of next week. "
http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/colorado
