Bring on the snow!

Up to two feet of snow fell yesterday in Buffalo, forcing closure of the NYS Thurway.  In Europe, heavy snow and record-breaking cold have shut down airports and crippled travel from England to Switzerland to Poland.  As for winter weather here in eastern New York and New England this week, not so much. 

But skiers now have legitimate reason to smile:  colder weather has arrived and temperatures in the mountains should allow round-the-clock snowmaking for at least the next 15 days.  A series of low pressure systems over the next week will produce some snowfall over the mountains of New York and New England.  This combination of colder temperatures and periods of snow have the potential to allow ski areas to recover from this week's monsoon-like rains and warm temperatures and significantly expand their open terrain by mid-month.

Willard's new groomer sits ready on November 21, with evidence of early snowmaking efforts

Looking to this weekend, Gore expects to add Pine Knot and Tannery to Ruby Run / Sunway and Topridge by Saturday.  Whiteface also hopes to expand open terrain options.  Locally, Willard is resuming snowmaking operations and hopes to be open by the weekend of December 11 and West Mountain is looking to open by mid-month.  A pair of interesting articles in today's Saratogian profiles improvements for 2010-2011 and anticipated opening dates for both West Mountain and Willard.

Cold temperatures are finally here, bring on the snow!