Your coast-to-coast ski forecast

AccuWeather

From the Rockies to the Northeast, AccuWeather's Paul Pastelok pinpoints where skiers can expect the best conditions this season.

Transcript

00:00Before you wax those skis, we're checking in with AccuWeather's lead, long-range expert, Paul Paslok,

00:05for a look at what to expect this ski season.

00:09Paul, thanks for being with us this morning.

00:11And folks in California, we're getting off to a good start here.

00:14Let's talk about the current storms and what's to come here over the next week or so.

00:20Yeah, the Southwest and the Western U.S. is going to probably have a very good Thanksgiving holiday week

00:27as far as the setup goes because over the next couple of weeks, we have a couple of, actually several systems,

00:35several rounds of systems coming into this region, and it's going to produce lots of snow.

00:39The Southern Sierra is getting hit on this first big one.

00:42As you heard from Bernie, about one to three feet of snow is expected in that region.

00:46And multiple snowfall events is going to set the stage very nicely for the first part of the ski season.

00:53Now, this is an area that we're kind of, we'll get into the forecast a little bit later on.

00:57We're concentrating that it may not be as good as other seasons, especially the Southern Sierras.

01:02But the early part of this season is going to be very good.

01:06This is going to be an area of the country you're going to want to visit because of the snowfall.

01:09And also the interior west.

01:10Look at Salt Lake City region and also Colorado.

01:13They're going to get into the act, and this is expected to last over the next couple of weeks,

01:17be an influence by the water temperatures that are over the northern Pacific,

01:21enhancing and splitting off these storms that are in the north coming down into California and into the interior west.

01:27This is a good pattern all the way into early December right now.

01:30All right, good news there.

01:31How about the Midwest?

01:32As you covered in our winter forecast, right,

01:35the Midwest is expected to see temperatures run below average throughout the season,

01:39while snowfall is expected to run above average.

01:42That, to me, sounds like a great recipe for winter.

01:46So what are you expecting in the Midwest?

01:48Well, they've done so far pretty well.

01:50They've got a good start going on.

01:51We're expecting above average snowfall across the upper Midwest and the Great Leaks region.

01:55The cold weather will keep coming.

01:57We're going to get a little bit of warm-up here in mid-November,

02:00but look for colder weather in early to mid-December,

02:02and that's good snowmaking and some natural snow expected in that region as well.

02:07Even farther south and east, not too bad as well.

02:09We've got above area in parts of the Tennessee Valley,

02:11but the upper Midwest looking good right now.

02:13That is good stuff.

02:15For the east coast, of course, we've been talking a lot about the drought.

02:19Does that play a role in some of the snowmaking?

02:21Do you think there's going to be any significant drought relief?

02:23We've had some help.

02:25We've had a couple of systems bring precipitation,

02:27but we're still running below average,

02:29and I think they're playing a little bit safe here early on.

02:32You don't want to start making snow too early.

02:34You want to get consistent cold, and with the dry conditions,

02:37again, some of these places may have a tough time building it up fairly quickly.

02:42So we're thinking a little late start in some of these places,

02:44but Mother Nature might help us out in early-mid-December.

02:47That would be good news.

02:48All right, so you've seen some of the winter forecasts popping up here,

02:51but we do have an exclusive AccuWeather ski forecast here on a scale from poor average to good.

02:57So can you break it down here from west coast to east coast this season?

03:01Yeah, let's start in the west because we already talked about how good it's going to be

03:04over the next several weeks.

03:05I do expect that to be the case all the way into early-December.

03:08But as you get into the heart of the winter season, the middle and latter part,

03:13there's going to be lulls in precipitation, and that may spoil the effect.

03:16Conditions may get a little milder, so the bases and the lower elevation ski areas,

03:21those places may have some trouble with some icy spots.

03:24Northern areas will do well.

03:25I think they still continue to get hit in the northwest.

03:28We talked about the upper Midwest.

03:29The cold will be available all season long for either snowmaking or just natural snow.

03:34And the east right now looking pretty good, especially in the mid to latter part of the season,

03:39and we may get a little burst here as we get into early-mid-December as well.

03:43I'm sure a lot of people are smiling looking at this forecast.

03:45We appreciate you breaking it down for us.

03:47AccuWeather lead long-range expert Paul Pastelok.

03:50Thanks again for joining us, looking at what this winter we can expect,

03:54especially when it comes to skiing.

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