It's June, So Let's Talk About Snow!

They were skiing at Killington, Vermont right up
through yesterday, when the resort finally 
closed for the season.

 We have a couple little tidbits involving snow, or things that remind us of snow in the news today. It's June, the perfect month to discuss snow, right?  

We'll go distant first, then zoom in on the local

MONTANA SNOW

Way up at 10,000 feet in elevation, near the Montana/Wyoming border, there's a ski area called Beartooth Basin, which often offers summer skiing.  It's rough hewn, basically back country skiing with a lift, but it's a unique situation.

Beartooth Basin decided not to open this summer. There wasn't enough snow to sustain the operation. Then, of course, a massive snowstorm hit on Memorial Day weekend. 

The high elevation Beartooth Highway on the Montana/Wyoming border was closed for days afterward because of six-foot drifts. Crews couldn't really get into clear the snow due to a high avalanche risk, reports Cowboy State Daily.

Beartooth Highway is sort of a mega version of Route 108 through Smugglers Notch. The highway reaches an elevation as high as 10,900 feet. It closes in the fall and usually reopens in late spring, much like Smugglers Notch.

Crews trying to clear high elevation Beartooth Highway
of snow in Montana and Wyoming June 3.

The Montana high elevation road is normally open by Memorial Day, but not this year.  At last report, it still hadn't opened.

Beartooth Basin still doesn't look like it will open this summer, either. Despite all the new snow, it's too late to shift gears and open up.  

KILLINGTON SNOW

 No, I assure you that it didn't not snow in Vermont this weekend. The only powder we had was the huge amounts of pollen in the air that has created a yellow haze and left all of our cars yellow as well.

But, Killington was open and skiing until yesterday. It was the latest in the spring the resort closed since 1997, when it closed on June 22.

The spectacle was a little strange, as skiers zigzagged down a slope with still deep snow against a gorgeous backdrop of a summertime Vermont green landscape. 

The late closing this year had everything to do with Killington's snowmaking prowess and not weather conditions. After all, the winter was not especially cold, despite subzero weather in January. Spring was among the warmest on record. 

The resort managed to pile  up the snow on the trail to a depth of 30 feet before the spring that got underway. 

When Killington stayed open late in 1997, it had been a remarkably cool spring, which helped maintain the snow the resort had made through the winter. 

NOR'EASTERS OF SORTS 

When we think about nor'easters in New England, we think big snowstorm.  And now we have the potential for two storms that will be very much like weak nor'easters.

Don't worry, it isn't going to snow.  And temperatures as these things pass by will only be a little cooler than normal. And it might rain. 

In the summer, we don't see huge temperature contrasts like we do in the winter. Without these huge contrasts, storm systems can't get really strong (unless they're tropical storms, which is a whole other issue)

Without the ability to get strong, two relatively weak low pressure systems will end up running up the New England coast. One on Thursday, one on Sunday. 

Both storms will dump rain somewhere in New England. 

Like wintertime nor'easters, it's still hard to predict how much moisture will work into Vermont, so there's still some questions about how much rain will fall. Right now, it looks like the Green Mountain State will be under the threat of showers both Thursday and Sunday.  But it doesn't look like we'll have any blockbuster rains. 

By the way, technically there might be snow. Way, way, overhead. Often, precipitation starts out as snow many, many thousands of feet overhead even in the summer. That will probably happen with these little storms. But that snow will change to rain on the way down well before it hits even summit levels of the Vermont mountains.