Comments on: More snow coming & police go skiing

By: Stuck in the Rockies » Highlands Hustling?

Stuck in the Rockies » Highlands Hustling? — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:11:59 +0000

[...] when I got an email from Christy in regards to Joel Gratz’s big forecast for the weekend, I saw an opportunity. The message read,”I don’t know, if you read between the lines, [...]

By: powderpages.com

powderpages.com — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:43:26 +0000

NOAA is showing snow fri-sun here is the SW, any ideas of when it might hit hardest? (specifically purg, wolfy)

thanks i love the site!!

By: Sterling

Sterling — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:53:39 +0000

WP update, snowed all day, but seemed too warm to accumulate. Nice and soft, and I am stoked that I will be back at it Sat. Thanks for the awesome forecasting. Oh, and the talk w/ power point was hilarious. Go get some this weekend!!

By: Dan Hickstein

Dan Hickstein — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:25:06 +0000

Thanks! It’s generally not that hard to figure out the wind direction; this Joel Gratz guy generally just tells us

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:12:23 +0000

Good idea…I’ll try to post an easy list of Resort vs. Flow Direction today. IN short, west flow favors Beaver Creek over Vail, while Northwest flow favors Vail over Beaver Creek. Abasin and Keystone usually do best in North or NNW flow, and Abasin will likely do a bit better than keystone in most situations (likely because of the higher elevation).

Often, the trick is figuring out what direction the flow will be from. Sometimes it’s simple (i.e. last weekend with NW flow hammering Vail), but this upcoming 4-5 days is quite variable with the wind direction changing every 12-18hrs, so the forecast is not as easy.

By: Dan Hickstein

Dan Hickstein — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:05:34 +0000

Hi Joel, Does west flow favor Beaver Creek over Vail? Could you post your “flow direction —> favored resorts decoder ring” at some point? I looked at the figure with the map and the arrows in your slideshow, and it makes it clear that Vail and BC are favored in W/NW and that Summit country is favored in N flow, but are there trends for the individual resorts. I.e., can I predict from the flow direction if BC will win over Vail or if Abasin will beat keystone?
Many thanks for your forecast,
Dan

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:56:38 +0000

Crested Butte could do VERY WELL this weekend. The details are still changing, but I think it’ll be a great weekend to be down there…nice timing!

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:54:38 +0000

Hey i am going to be going to crested butte this weekend how will it be friday saturday and sunday? will the storms on friday and sunday still hit there?

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:51:48 +0000

Yup…Winter Park should also have a pretty good weekend…maybe up to double digits from Thurs>Sun. But with the moist flow coming more from the west than from the northwest, I think places like Steamboat, Beaver Creek, and the Aspen area will see more snow than WP.

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:50:34 +0000

Yeppers…it feels good to spread the love, eh? Wolf Creek and the San Juans might do pretty well this weekend…or at least they’ll do a lot better than last weekend. Stay tuned!