Feb 10: And the weather turns

It started just like the last few days, clear...

Somewhere near the terrain park, 11 AM

...groomed, cold (-16° in the village, -19° on Divide at 10 AM), and fairly light winds. But looming on the horizon (and slightly visible in the above photo) was cloud. The forecast was calling for it to cloud up and start snowing during the day.

We went in for lunch in cold and sunshine. And in that hour, it socked in and started...

SNOWING

The village, 1:30 PM

Okay, the snow was really, really light. But its the first snow I've seen in over a week.

We reversed our normal strategy of Goat's Eye in the AM/Divide in the PM based on the assumption that it would sock in early in the afternoon. So in the afternoon, we were over on Goat's Eye in the light snow and... sun...

Looking up at 3 PM

...while it was snowing and socked in in both the village and up on Divide.

Looking the other way

The Stonehenge automated data tells me that very little snow accumulated before 5 PM, which does not surprise me at all. The flakes before then were microscopic.

Since then, however, the snow has started falling in earnest. As I type this at 9:30 PM, almost 6 cm has fallen -- and the temperature has risen to -11°.

The 9:30 pm Stonehenge plot photo

Now, I have dissed forecasts in the past and will continue to do so. But the current ones are suggesting this snow will continue until noon-ish Tuesday, then we will get a break, and it will start snowing again early Wednesday morning.

Bring it on, I say.