Huge snowfalls in North America

After a lacklustre pre-Christmas start to the season, resorts in western North America have been reporting increasingly spectacular snowfall over the past few weeks, particularly in the northern US states and in British Columbia, Canada.

The snow has caused practical operational problems in some cases and avalanches in others with about a dozen deaths across the region.

At Whitefish in Montana, the resort reports it received more than five feet of new snow between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. As a result total snowfall to date is now approaching last season’s record numbers. “We got off to a bit of a slow start, snow-wise,” said Donnie Clapp, spokesman for the resort. “We certainly didn’t expect to have this much snow by early January when we opened.”

In Utah, Snowbird Ski Resort crossed over the 200inch (five metre) season-to-date snowfall total mark this week thanks to 29 inches (73cm) of new snow that has fallen over a three day period. “Nine feet of snow fell in December, and January is already proving to be another significant and productive snowfall month,” said Snowbird President Bob Bonar. “The mountain is in mid-winter form and skiers are raving about the conditions.”

The weekend storm brought Snowbird’s season-to-date snowfall total to 207 inches and the mid-mountain base to 86 inches. The Little Cottonwood Canyon resort averages an annual snowfall of 500 inches, providing the longest ski and snowboard season in Utah. Last season Snowbird received 611 inches and remained open until June 22nd.

It’s a similar picture north of the border with Fernie reporting more than a metre (40 inches) of new snow in the past week and stating accumulations were building in feet rather than centimetres! Good news indeed.

A cold Christmas and frosty New Year

After a sunny but cold Christmas period in the Alps, France and Switzerland are looking forward to more snow during the coming week, whilst over in North America, the heavy snow that continues to fall in both the east and west is a welcome sight.

In Europe, it's France which is expecting the heaviest of the snow over the New Year period. Isola 2000 in the Southern Alps, is expecting 75cm of snow over the next five days, in addition to the monumental amounts of snow they had two weeks ago. This resulted in the resort being completely cut off due to avalanches across the access roads.
The more northern part of the French Alps is expecting between 20cm and 40cm, which will be greatly appreciated by New Year skiers, as it has been very sunny in France for the last ten days and the pistes are getting increasingly packed down.

Switzerland is also expecting some snow during the middle of the week but isn't expected to be anywhere near as heavy as in France. The snowiest of the Swiss resorts should be Saas Fee and Zermatt where 31cm is expected to land by the end of the week.

Austria is set to be largely sunny for the coming week. Clear skies and cold temperatures should mean the fresh snow over the Christmas period can be perfectly preserved. Temperatures in the higher resorts will drop dramatically, especially in Obergurgl and Obertauern, so be sure to wrap up very warm this New Year!

Over in the US, Snowbird and Alta in Utah have both received nearly 150cm of snow in the last five days, living up to their legendary powder status. In Canada, Whistler should see a whopping 155cm of fresh powder over the next five days, whilst Revelstoke is 85cm and Kicking Horse is forecast a respectable 67cm of snow.