11 degrees and no snow making

[bigdaddyk]

Can somebody please explains this, preferably somebody from JFBB? Why were all of the snow guns turned off this morning, when it was 11 degrees...was it TOO cold? I can see on the open trails, but the closed trails didn't even have the hoses hooked up. The phone recording says that they are making snow whenever possible. It doesn't get much better than what it was this morning and nothing was running . At least blow snow on the trails that are closed.

[bigdaddyk]

Can somebody please explains this, preferably somebody from JFBB? Why were all of the snow guns turned off this morning, when it was 11 degrees...was it TOO cold? I can see on the open trails, but the closed trails didn't even have the hoses hooked up. The phone recording says that they are making snow whenever possible. It doesn't get much better than what it was this morning and nothing was running . At least blow snow on the trails that are closed.

 

At JF.

[Ride the eastern ice]

Can somebody please explains this, preferably somebody from JFBB? Why were all of the snow guns turned off this morning, when it was 11 degrees...was it TOO cold? I can see on the open trails, but the closed trails didn't even have the hoses hooked up. The phone recording says that they are making snow whenever possible. It doesn't get much better than what it was this morning and nothing was running . At least blow snow on the trails that are closed.

 

 

May have something with the expected afternoon warmup that pushed the wetbulb temps to 22+. Right now the wet bulb is 27 which is really shitty snowmaking. anything 21 and above gives you a poor snow quality. Now at 11deg there shouldn't be a prob, but again, if you need to shut down equipment ( lets say it takes 2 - 3 hours ) and the wetbulb is expected to hit say 21 by 11am then you may want to start shutting down the guns at arround 8 or 9.

[parider81]

May have something with the expected afternoon warmup that pushed the wetbulb temps to 22+. Right now the wet bulb is 27 which is really shitty snowmaking. anything 21 and above gives you a poor snow quality. Now at 11deg there shouldn't be a prob, but again, if you need to shut down equipment ( lets say it takes 2 - 3 hours ) and the wetbulb is expected to hit say 21 by 11am then you may want to start shutting down the guns at arround 8 or 9.

 

I am looking at the weather right now and it is 22 degrees with 45% humidity which equals a wet bulb of somewhere between 16 and 20 degrees according to this:

 

http://www.skibearcreek.com/winter/winter_...ortwetbulb.aspx

 

I see no reason why JFBB should not be making snow at this point unless they are having equipment problems or something unforseen. These next few days are prime snowmaking oppurtunities and imo should not be missed given the previous stretch of warm weather.

Edited January 17, 2007 by parider81

[bbg]

Someone once told me that after the first of the year the power prices sky rocket. They said they get some sort of discount until then but after it just jumps up too much. I think its more cost efficient to make snow at night and on weekends now. I am not positive but thats just what I have heard.

[Ride the eastern ice]

I am looking at the weather right now and it is 22 degrees with 45% humidity which equals a wet bulb of somewhere between 16 and 20 degrees according to this:

 

http://www.skibearcreek.com/winter/winter_...ortwetbulb.aspx

 

I see no reason why JFBB should not be making snow at this point unless they are having equipment problems or something unforseen. These next few days are prime snowmaking oppurtunities and imo should not be missed given the previous stretch of warm weather.

 

Look at the readings on the mtn in real time. http://www.jfbb.com/webcams.asp The wecams gives you the temp and humdity.

37deg

43%

wetbulb of about 31, can't make snow

[Justo8484]

Look at the readings on the mtn in real time. http://www.jfbb.com/webcams.asp The wecams gives you the temp and humdity.

37deg

43%

wetbulb of about 31, can't make snow

 

how the hell is it 37 up there. its not even above freezing in philly right now.

[Ride the eastern ice]

how the hell is it 37 up there. its not even above freezing in philly right now.

 

I am 8 lateral miles from JF and it is 35.8deg right now

[fluffy]

bbq was on the right track with the electricity idea. During the working part of the day, 8 to 5, the cost of electricity sky rockets. With the correct temperatures and all that JFBB will fire the snow guns up everyday at 5:01 PM. The cost of electricity is much less at night and weekends.

[parider81]

Look at the readings on the mtn in real time. http://www.jfbb.com/webcams.asp The wecams gives you the temp and humdity.

37deg

43%

wetbulb of about 31, can't make snow

 

I dunno but it only topped out around 31 here in philadelphia today.

[Ride the eastern ice]

I dunno but it only topped out around 31 here in philadelphia today.

weather systems are weird, today I had a high of 38 and a low of 28 so far. Humidity has been steady arround 42% +/-4%

[Jar3d]

blue needs to blow all day to keep up on snow colder temps at night make for better snowmaking and just from their run last night, they threw down pretty hard on most slopes..

[Sno Mountain Skier]

weather systems are weird, today I had a high of 38 and a low of 28 so far. Humidity has been steady arround 42% +/-4%

I highly doubt that.

[Ride the eastern ice]

I highly doubt that.

 

OK, what do you doubt, It's recently calibrated equipment that got those readings.

[Ride the eastern ice]

Earlier I drove up frpm Allentown to Blue and the temperature dropped from 30 degrees in the A to 27 degrees at Blue on the drive up..and that was right when you said it was 35 degrees by jackfrost..so you live on top of a hot springs or something??? And it was below freezing in Philly..better re-calibrate the equipment..

 

I'll do it again this weekend, but it was reading about 1deg diff. from the big boulder thermo. I don't know where theirs is mounted, but mine is not in the sun and out of direct wind path.

 

 

also, if it was below freezing in Philly and 30 in Allentown....? Again, pressure sytems change and can cause weird anomilies the cause it to be colder in a more sothern place. Note, I am note the one who said below freezing in Philly

Edited January 18, 2007 by Ride the eastern ice

[bigdaddyk]

I'll do it again this weekend, but it was reading about 1deg diff. from the big boulder thermo. I don't know where theirs is mounted, but mine is not in the sun and out of direct wind path.

 

 

also, if it was below freezing in Philly and 30 in Allentown....? Again, pressure sytems change and can cause weird anomilies the cause it to be colder in a more sothern place. Note, I am note the one who said below freezing in Philly

 

I would think that there thermometer is not accurate. There have been times where there humidity read 0%. They are the same temp as Mt. Pocono.

 

Any other year they would blow snow. It must have something to do w/ Peak. This time of the year, they should suck it up and blow every chance they get....especially the way this winter has. If all the other places are doing it, JFBB shouldn't have a problem.

[Ride the eastern ice]

I would think that there thermometer is not accurate. There have been times where there humidity read 0%. They are the same temp as Mt. Pocono.

 

Any other year they would blow snow. It must have something to do w/ Peak. This time of the year, they should suck it up and blow every chance they get....especially the way this winter has. If all the other places are doing it, JFBB shouldn't have a problem.

 

good point, Thanks, Ill have to recheck it, it could be possible the thermistor needs to be replaced.

On theother note, I agree, if it's a $/electric issue, they are foolish. Look at what happened to places like BC and camelback who had to close on the warmups. I would be building up the base as much as possible. Right now it looks like jack is blowing and it looks like they are blowing widow at bolder.

[stever2003]

Can somebody please explains this, preferably somebody from JFBB? Why were all of the snow guns turned off this morning, when it was 11 degrees...was it TOO cold? I can see on the open trails, but the closed trails didn't even have the hoses hooked up. The phone recording says that they are making snow whenever possible. It doesn't get much better than what it was this morning and nothing was running . At least blow snow on the trails that are closed.

I agree. Earlier in the week, the JF conditions page showed MOST of the black diamonds opening by Thursday and Saturday. They definitely showed T-Bolt Glade and Thunderbolt, Mad Tree Glade, Telstar, Floyd's Folly, and maybe Risk It. I remember being impressed that they were opening all but two of their black diamonds. Now they're only showing Thunderbolt. What happened to this report?

 

bbq was on the right track with the electricity idea. During the working part of the day, 8 to 5, the cost of electricity sky rockets. With the correct temperatures and all that JFBB will fire the snow guns up everyday at 5:01 PM. The cost of electricity is much less at night and weekends.

I disagree with your idea. Unless there is some special system that the ski slopes have worked out that actually tracks the time that they blow, the main part of a commercial customer's energy bill comes from peak demand - how much energy they use at one time. I believe they do track some usage, but I highly doubt they track what time the usage occurs, and from experience, I know demand is the driving factor (used to work for PECO energy, i've seen enough commercial customers' bills to back this up).

 

I would probably guess that something out of their control happened. Maybe they didn't make enough money last weekend and don't feel like spending much on snowmaking. Maybe an air compressor or water pump broke and they CAN'T blow snow. I'm not gonna bother guessing anymore because, unless someone gets info from JFBB, we're probably not going to figure it out.

[bigdaddyk]

I just checked the BB snow report and it says around the clock snowmaking starting this Friday.

[method9455]

I agree. Earlier in the week, the JF conditions page showed MOST of the black diamonds opening by Thursday and Saturday. They definitely showed T-Bolt Glade and Thunderbolt, Mad Tree Glade, Telstar, Floyd's Folly, and maybe Risk It. I remember being impressed that they were opening all but two of their black diamonds. Now they're only showing Thunderbolt. What happened to this report?

 

I agree completely, I saw that and now its no where to be seen. They've had the temperatures, where is the snow? And they have made snow during the day before so I'm thinking it might be equipment failure or something.

[tngirl]

Don't judge so quickly. Could it be that JFBB is using their resources to the fullest? Peak Resorts have been in business a long time with 9 successful areas. They know what they are doing.

p.s. Fluffy has a valid point. I work for PPL.

[bigdaddyk]

Don't judge so quickly. Could it be that JFBB is using their resources to the fullest? Peak Resorts have been in business a long time with 9 successful areas. They know what they are doing.

p.s. Fluffy has a valid point. I work for PPL.

 

 

I really question that they know what they are doing. By sitting idle and wasting ideal temps, that's not using resources to the fullest. The cost thing is rediculous, considering that they jacked up the cost of tickets and passes. I just checked the web cams and it looks like they aren't doing anything again. Widow is closed for snowmaking, but it looks like they aren't doing anything on it. They're really dropping the ball. They could have opened more terrain earlier. The other resorts are blowing snow as I type.

Edited January 18, 2007 by bigdaddyk

[johnnypowder]

Double check the power cost issue! I have been told by many ski area management types that it is much more cost effective to blow snow overnight. JF and Blue are two of those mtns i have specifically heard it from.

Their demand when they are blowing on the whole mountain must be huge.

 

That said, with the way the weather has been, one side of me thinks that they would all blow every time the temps were favorable. Perhaps their long range forecasts show that the cold temps will stick around long enough that if they only blow at night and save some money that they will still have enough of a window for snowmaking to let them get terrain open according to a schedule that they are comfortable with.

 

[stever2003]

Don't judge so quickly. Could it be that JFBB is using their resources to the fullest? Peak Resorts have been in business a long time with 9 successful areas. They know what they are doing.

p.s. Fluffy has a valid point. I work for PPL.

cool, what do you do there?

and does JFBB actually get charged less during offpeak hours?

[method9455]

It is a fact they get charged less during off peak hours, although I would think during this cold weather they would make snow during the day because it is so efficient at cold temperatures it might offset the power issue. Or maybe they are thinking they can get all the snowmaking they need during the off peak hours. I wonder if Saturday/Sunday are considered off peak, and if we'll see snowmaking on the weekends.