It’s been pretty much status quo since the December 16-17 snow event. Snowpack is holding around 6 inches at Indian Lake and a foot-plus for the Route 8 corridor.
The DEC gate to S84/Blue Mountain trail in Indian Lake has been opened and some snowmobilers have ridden in.
Since I won’t have any real riding to do locally for at least the next several days, I might as well dive into weather-geek mode for something to do.
Sooo here it goes….
You can see the forecast evolution of the Christmas Eve Massacre on this loop:
It’s gonna be a rain-storm, pure and simple, for ilsnow land. There may be a little tail-whip snow at the end of this on Christmas Day, but whoopty-ding-dang-doo… So, we’ll be left begging for lake-effect scraps on December 26th.
If you’re still sitting on a two-foot pile of snow left behind from last week’s historic nor’easter, don’t think you’re safe…not with temperatures looking like THIS at 4am Christmas morning:
It’ll be in the 50s…..EVERYWHERE!! And yes, some lower elevation spots in Upstate New York may hit 60*F before dawn.
Then we’ve got rain, LOTS OF IT! The purple areas on the map are forecasted for 2 inch or greater rain amounts.
Temperatures in the 50s and heavy rain is an excellent snow remover, every time it’s tried. This is going to be an old-fashioned, butt-kicking, snow-pack massacre. The ONLY saving grace is this will be a short thaw. But it will be more than enough to plummet us into the stone age.
But?
The deck gets reshuffled pretty quickly and we could have two players on the map next week, presenting snow opportunities:
A strong shortwave (X1) will approach on Monday, December 28th. Then we’ve got another strong shortwave (X2) that may roll around New Year’s Day or shortly after.
The mid to long range model-ology have been all over the place with possible outcomes. So it’s probably best for wait for more details to roll in before we get tremendously excited.
Best I can say right now is that we MAY get back into the game sooner rather than later.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
