Weather

Andy Wirth, the President and CEO of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows ski areas has published an open letter in which he urges skiers and boarders to encourage the American government department, EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency) to, “…maintain and even increase the critical regulations that combat climate change.” Mr Wirth’s call comes as President Trump, who vowed during his campaign to eradicate President Obama’s policies related to climate change, plans to sign an executive order directing Scott Pruitt, the new E.P.A. administrator, to begin the legal process of undoing Mr. Obama’s regulations surrounding the reduction of greenhouse pollution generated from coal-fired power plants. These regulations are the cornerstone of the Obama Administration’s program that supports our nation’s compliance with…

Special snow making machines which can produce snow in positive temperatures are seeing a rapid growth in sales around the world. The machines have existed for around 20 years in various forms, and have commonly been used to make snow for events in urban areas and outside the ski season, but the past Northern Hemisphere ski season and the coming Southern Hemisphere one has seen a rapid growth in sales of the machines, in particular to low altitude resorts and ski areas located in areas where snowfall is not guaranteed, particularly at the start of the season. The most popular machine is the ‘Snow Factory’ unit from Techno Alpin, but the units follow a similar model of making the snow…

It has been snowing heavily, and continues to snow, this week in both North and South America at the same time. Usually, of course, it doesn’t snow in North America during the South American ski season, and vice versa, but this is that grey area between the northern and southern winters when it can snow in either or both hemispheres at the same time – it just doesn’t happen very often. https://www.facebook.com/MammothMountain/videos/10153936267747395/ (Snowfall at Mammoth Mountain California this week) For ski areas the snow – up to 35cm has been reported in Western North America and up to 60cm in the Andes of South America so far – is something of a quandary.  Do North American areas re-open top give…

A large storm continues to bring fresh snowfall to the European Alps this week, mostly in Austrian resorts which is luckily where most of the resorts that are open are. The Obergurgl region has seen up to 15cm of new snow, but elsewhere glacier resorts such as Hintertux have had over 30cm in the past 24 hours. A look at our Ski Austria pages shows those resorts reporting the best piste conditions and new powder, so check this out regularly if you're lucky enough to be able to head to the mountains!   Not forgetting French resorts, Tignes reports 20cm of snow in the first 24 hours of May…