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Snow overview North America: 22 February

22nd February 2010, by Wendy King

Whistler Mountain 19 February [Whistler Blackcomb / Coastphoto.com / I Robertson]

It was fantastic to watch the Olympics under clear blue skies at last, a rare treat after the recent rain and murkiness that has plagued the Vancouver region. But that has meant very little new snow to western Canadian resorts: with high pressure in charge for a few days. In the east, more snowfall is expected in Quebec – where it has been colder too.

So how is Whistler shaping up now? Well, the last few days have seen settled, clear conditions; a taste of spring, it seems. There has not been any fresh snow since 16 February, although settled snow depths remain a very healthy 3m+ at mid-mountain. Quality matters as well as quantity though and with temperatures on the rise, lower slopes are likely to soften in the strong sunshine – there have been reports of visitors in t-shirts in the resort.

Sun Peaks (165cm) reports 30cm of fresh snow on the upper mountain in the past week. Slope conditions are good, with varying amounts of cloud and fog early in the day. With high pressure influencing the region, very little fresh snow is expected this week.

In Revelstoke (188cm), the most recent snowfall was a light dusting of 8cm. The snow pack is reported stable and with packed powder on piste, though the report warns of a gradual warming up of the weather this week. Some rain/snow showers are forecast from Thursday.

The best place to catch any fresh snowfall in Canada is Quebec: where there’s a 60% chance of snow for the next couple of days. They have not received significant falls recently (2-10cm), so piste conditions are fairly hard and fast.

USA

It is a different story in the US, where we can report at last the best conditions of the season so far. What’s more, in the US Rockies they usually expect more snow to fall in February than in January or March – and conditions have certainly has improved.

After last week’s dumps in Colorado, California and Utah, there have been regular snowfalls for much of this week and plenty of great powder to skim across the skis or board. In Colorado, Vail reports the deepest accumulation: 70cm in 7 days. Snow showers are forecast to continue for much of this week, except Tuesday – a brief, bright day apparently! Winter Park reports 40cm or so. And recent storms have enabled Arapahoe Basin to open the Montezuma Bowl at last, now in condition with lots of fresh powder. It may be a none-too-special season out there so far, but by Alpine standards the slopes are in good nick right now.

There have been further useful contributions in Utah and California (10cm in The Canyons, 20cm Alpine Meadows), but things are settling down for the next day or two at least.

The most active weather at present is in the east. Killington in Vermont is predicting 15-25cm new snow this week. It has been cold enough to operate the snowmaking, so the slopes have good cover at present and a settled snow depth of a metre on the upper mountain.

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