East Coast Enjoys Historically Deep November While West Waits For Snow - SnowBrains

"This year, skiers in the West have been left high and dry while the Midwest and East Coast have been absolutely pummeled with winter weather. While just a handful of ski areas West of the Mississippi have even just one run open, ski areas on the other side of the river have been rewriting record books, or at least flipping back through many decades to find a November as good as this one."

"Recently, I wrote about how other slow starting seasons turned out in California, Utah, and Colorado with the help of snowfall data from snow telemetry, or snotel, sites. Unfortunately, other parts of the country do not have the detailed historical data that snotel sites give us, but, many local forecast offices of the National Weather Service keep historical records of snowfall and other weather measurements, allowing us to look back through time and see just how good this November was East of the Mississippi."

"Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan are having a truly incredible start this season. A huge storm dropped a foot of snow or more across the Midwest and temperatures have been absolutely frigid since then, leading to many ski areas opening far more terrain than they are typically able to in early December. There is only one year on record since about 1940 that had more snowfall in November"

Western ski areas opened very little terrain due to a weak early season. The Midwest and East Coast received unusually heavy November snowfall and persistent frigid temperatures, enabling many ski areas to open much more terrain than typical for early December. Historical snowfall records from National Weather Service forecast offices provide context where snotel data are unavailable. Madison and other Midwest locations recorded November totals rarely seen since the 1940s. Some past seasons with strong November starts, such as 1985, continued above-average snowfall through winter, while other years stalled after November. Monthly snowfall plots represent accumulation, not snow depth.

Read at SnowBrains