No snow? Ski areas still open this weekend... (11-15-11)
It’s raining and headed for the 50s today. We’ve had less than an inch of natural snow so far this season but in spite of this a number of central New York ski areas will open this weekend. You can thank man made snow for coming to the rescue.On Wednesday I talked with Peter Harris, the operations manager at Song Mountain and he said they had a good window last weekend where the weather was cool enough to make snow. Temperature were well down in the 20s allowing them to make snow. Ideally they would like to see temperatures below 20 F for the best snowmaking weather but this month with temperatures averaging almost 6 degrees above normal you can’t be fussy. I asked him what the threshold is for them to start making snow and he said mid to upper 20s but “That goes up as you get closer to the holiday.” The week after Christmas is one of the ski areas big money making weeks. (along with the school winter break)So there is cold enough weather in the near term for the ski areas to start making snow again, probably starting Friday night and continuing at least during the nights over the weekend. Peter told me that in Song’s case, given a couple of days of ideal snowmaking weather, their 50 snow guns could reasonably cover 6 of their 24 trails. Labrador and Greek will also be opening locally. Call ahead elsewhere. Not the best scenario this late into December but better than nothing.The downhill options are better than the options available for snowmobilers and cross country skiers. The only real snow cover is up over the Tug Hill and parts of the Adirondacks and Catskills and that can’t be augmented by snowmaking. Here is a map I found on the Buffalo National Weather Service web site:
One winter sport that seems to be flourishing, at least in one spot, is skating at the Clinton Square ice rink. There attendance is up about 10% compared to last year at this time. I was there at 6 pm Wednesday evening to do a story for the news and I took a few laps. The ice was in great shape in spite of upper 40s. They have benefited from warm weather, which makes it more comfortable for skating outdoors plus we haven’t seen many days above 50 which tends to speed up melting. That’s kind of their cut off. Below that temperature the cooling coils set at 18 F below the ice surface can keep the ice surface rather solid.
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