So here’s the deal, we aren’t going to lie and tell you it’s the best winter we’ve ever had – nope, just not going to do. However, Park City and the surrounding World Class resorts have made mountains out of molehills!
Lets talk about current conditions for a bit. For the small amounts of natural snow that mother nature has thrown our way, the three Park City, UT resorts are doing quite well actually.
- Deer Valley Resort > 27″ base
- Canyons Resort > 22″ base
- Park City Mountain Resort > 19″ base
If you want to compare apples to apples, the majority of the Colorado resorts are reporting in the same neighborhood of about 25″ for a base depth. The anomalies are the southern resorts which have benefited from the southern storms always associated with a La Nina year. So, with that being said, Park City is doing extremely well, in large part due to the extraordinary efforts of the snow making teams at each resort. Have a read from this Editorial (no need to re-write it) in yesterdays Park Record Newspaper.
So what does the rest of the winter look like? Well if it where I, and I’m a betting man, I’d be booking a ski vacation to Utah sometime in February through mid-April. Check out what I pulled from the NOAA web site about La Nina patterns:
FOR (Jan, Feb, Mar) 2012 ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS ARE FAVORED FOR PARTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, THE NORTHERN ROCKIES, AND WESTERN PORTIONS OF THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS. THE CHANCES FOR ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION ARE ELEVATED FROM THE MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY NORTHEASTWARD TO INCLUDE MUCH OF THE GREAT LAKES REGION AND CENTRAL AND WESTERN PARTS OF THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES. BELOW MEDIAN PRECIPITATION IS FAVORED FOR PARTS OF SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. THIS PRECIPITATION PATTERN IS ALSO TYPICAL FOR LA NINA WINTERS. ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS ARE FAVORED IN PARTS OF WESTERN ALASKA BY MANY CLIMATE MODELS.
So start checking you calendar now, and plan your ski vacation to Utah – you probably sorry if you don’t.