Coldest air of the season allows ski resorts to begin snowmaking
By STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS
THE MORNING CALL |
NOV 18, 2020 AT 6:54 AM
With temperatures at night dropping down into the 20s, snowmaking operations are now underway at area ski resorts.
Blue Mountain Resort in Lower Towamensing Township turned on its snow guns around 9 p.m. Tuesday. “Our system can pump out 14,000 gallons of water a minute and convert it to snow,” mountain manager Bob Taylor told The Morning Call last week, with his team able to groom a trail per day once conditions are favorable.
Live webcams at Blue Mountain showed heavy snow flying through the air Tuesday morning. Temperatures in the area were below freezing, with the humidity continuing to fall. The colder it is and the lower the humidity, the better quality of snow the machines will produce.
Taylor said his team needs just 80 hours of snowmaking to be up and running as long as conditions remain favorable.
The National Weather Service said Wednesday will be the coldest day of the season thus far. Temperatures will top out in the upper 30s and low 40s, with a steady breeze that will put wind chills markedly lower.
"While it will not last long, the air mass over us today is quite anomalous in its chill,” the weather service said in its morning forecast discussion.
Forecast lows tonight will be mainly in the low to mid 20s with some upper teens in the coldest spots. A few areas may come within 5 degrees or so of record lows.
Ski resorts will have to get their snowmaking in while they can. The end of the week will feature a transition back to a warmer pattern. Thursday will see highs near normal, and by Friday, most areas will return to the low 60s for highs.
As long as area resorts have some good cold nights, the snow will likely keep flying.
“We will let the snow pile and not touch it,” Taylor said, noting that once you touch those piles it’s like cracking an egg. The snow freezes from the outside and is better left undisturbed until it needs to be moved.
The webcams at Blue Mountain showed Vista and Main Street as two of the trails currently being coated in snow.
Bear Creek Mountain Resort just outside Macungie does not have live webcams showing snowmaking yet. Last week, its team was looking ahead for a four- or five-day window of the right conditions to get started.
