The ski season starts TODAY!Arapahoe Basin is the first ski resort to open in North America today at 11 AM.What are your ski plans for this year?
>>2883575Technically Ski Ward in Boston opened last week with a little patch of snow they had saved since last year, but like they were only open for 2 days, so I don't think that counts.
>>2883575My big plan for this year is to ski some Japanese powder in February :)
>>2883575Has anyone been to Gay Basin or Keystone yet?
Super El nino. 4 of 4 indicators show that winter 2026-2027 is going to be potentially record breaking in terms of how much and how often it is going to snow, specifically in the southwest. The two snowiest types of Pacific events, are weak la nina, and super El nino. Weak la nina biases North. While super El nino biases south. 2023 was a weak la nina in which Utah got 900 inches and California got 880 inches, with AZ getting 399 inches at Snowbowl and 250+ inches on the Mogollon Rim, Wyoming got 600 inches, and British Columbia got "only" got 380 inches. This winter 2026-2027, is significantly more biased south, but has enough moisture spread to still possibly get an average winter as North as Idaho and Montana, but will be extremely heavy even damagingly heavy in the southwest in terms of snow and storms.550 to 850+ inches are possible in *southern* Colorado and Utah. 400-550+ inches are possible in Arizona and New Mexico. Arizona has already been hit by 25 tropical storms since June. Wolf Creek CO has already had 20-30 inches of snowfall. Arizona snowball has already had 10-15 inches. Look at satellites right now of the east Pacific and western USA, that is the exact standard super El nino snow Jetstream coming down from Alaska and swirling smack into California and Arizona and pushing into Utah and Colorado and elsewhere. This will likely continue for most or all of the winter, but gradually begin dumping 3-9 feet snowfall single storm events as winter progresses. Peak season should be around February, as usual, but it is likely that by that time there will still have been multiple hundreds of inches of snowfall across the four corners region including in AZ, and also California.
>>2883770Also, by the time the multiple feet snowstorms start hitting back to back, probably mid November to Dec-Jan through March, avalanche danger may become extreme. Especially in Utah and Colorado and California.To give some historical context of how much snow may be present on the ground. The super El nino of 1972-1973, dumped 210 inches of snow on Flagstaff AZ, which is low elevation for those amounts, all of the strong and super El nino events dumped 130+ inches on Flagstaff. Additionally, the 1992-1993 event dumped 460 inches on snowbowl, the 2003-2004 event dumped 460 inches on snowbowl, the 1972-1973 event was poorly recorded but certainly beat those amounts as a single month March 1973 dumped 105+ inches at 8,000 ft in AZ and snowplowing Big Lake, Arizona took the entire summer of 1973, the snow wasn't cleared until September 1973 at 33 degrees north latitude 8,000 ft elevation in Arizona. That indicates a peak snow depth in excess of 15 feet, more likely around 20-30 feet, in Arizona. Utah and Colorado and parts of California have much more extreme possibilities during strong events like those. This winter shows a strong resemblance to those extreme years, except all indicators show this winter to be *more* powerful.
