UPDATE: June 30 9pm
I’m still not terribly interested in things at the moment, as I won’t be skiing this weekend, but it would seem that the storm approaching mid next week does indeed have some juice attached.
Jane’s Weather has called it early and jumped on board:
ALPINE FORECAST
REST OF TODAY
Sunny then cloud building from west to east, mainly afternoon. Dry.
FRIDAY
Cloud clearing during the afternoon. Dry.
SATURDAY
Dry. Mostly sunny until cloud builds late afternoon.
SUNDAY
Light, patchy rain then proper rain, developing during the afternoon. Falling as snow on the higher slopes, and a wet snow/rain mix around 1500 metres, from the evening.
MONDAY
Snow at times on the higher slopes and a wet snow/rain mix at times around 1500 metres. Turning to snow throughout at night.
HOW MUCH?
Around 10 cm snow up high for Sunday / Monday.
Outlook – Snow in a west to southwest airflow from Tuesday. This one depends on where the upper trough peaks – some models have it here, some towards New Zealand. The potential for big snow falls is high, with 30 to 50 cm all up, not out of the question.
Click Here for the rest of her forecast. Mountainwatch is waiting for the system to close in and the charts to align, as are the Weather Nerds, while Weatherzone is calling for a moderate snowfall.
I’m still pretending that I don’t care, but I’m sure I’ll be glued to the webcams as it unfolds.
Oh and my new skis just arrived. It’s going to be great spending the weekend looking at them. Not.
If you have your own thoughts on the forecast, please contribute in the comments below:
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ORIGINALLY POSTED: June 28 10pm
Weather seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern.
Blue skies during the day and nightly inversions which seem to be giving few opportunities for snowmaking. Cold, clear nights during high pressure are a recipe for inversions at Buller – given the large relief on all flanks of the mountain, the dense, cold air basically runs down the slopes like water and displaces the warm air in the valleys. The AWS is currently showing about 4 degrees C at Buller, but I bet you could make snow at Sawmill right now.
Lorraine Lock from snow-blind went for a snowshoe today and took some great pics.
Jane’s Weather has confirmed this weather will continue through the week, with a change over the weekend and a chance of snow early this week.
ALPINE FORECAST
REST OF TODAY
Plenty of sunshine. Wispy high cloud at times. Warm day then below freezing overnight.
WEDNESDAY
Plenty of sunshine. Wispy high cloud at times. Warm day then below freezing overnight.
THURSDAY
Cloud building during the day. Dry.
FRIDAY
Cloud clearing during the day. Dry.
SATURDAY
A dry day. Rain slowly starts in the western parts at night / overnight.
Outlook – Rain first then a good amount of snow, on Sunday and Monday. The possibility of further weather systems affecting us in behind this one, with some models indicating a lot of snow next week.
The rest of her forecast is available here. The Weather Nerds are yet to make much sense of the forecast charts.
I’m not particularly perturbed by the outlook as I won’t be skiing on the weekend due to attending a wedding, and being the first weekend of School Holidays on limited terrain, it’s probably not a bad weekend to miss, given that it’s the first day for the various squads like Race Club and Team Xtreme that will be skiing in hordes on the few open runs.
In the meantime I’ll be hoping for a few solid nights of snowmaking, despite the increased temperatures of the inversion in some cases the humidity drops enough to allow for snowmaking at temperatures well into the positives.
