Many resorts pushed closer to opening last week on the heels of cold weather and prolific snow making. We highlighted last week that both Killington (8% open) and Wachusett (15% open) were open for business on Friday on machine-groomed trails. Do some more digging and you'll find many resorts on social media sharing news of their snow making plans and upcoming opening dates.

Shot of Stratton Mountain from their Twitter: "245 snow guns & 60+ hours of snowmaking generated great production for our 1st rnd of snowmaking. As the temps creep back up this wknd, we sit tight as the snow cures and self insulates to make it past warmer days. We look to fire up the guns again once nature allows for the opp" - 

Stratton nicely highlighted that we've had some warmer weather over the weekend with temperatures on Saturday pushing the mid-to-upper 40s across the region and temperatures on Sunday expected in the upper 30s. We're currently sitting in the mid-20s region-wide (upper 10s across northern Maine and at elevation) at 8AM Sunday.

Some quick updates regarding the forecast:

We are still expecting a storm to track from the eastern Great Lakes into southeast Canada/Northern New England Sunday night into Monday. It should be cold enough Sunday night to see snow, especially across the Mountains, before changing over to rain Monday morning. Pre-storm snow totals look to be lower than initially forecast (~1-2" in the mountains) due to warmer air. Once the storm moves into the Canadian Maritimes, northwest flow will produce some additional snow showers across the northwest slopes of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Post-storm snow totals look to be ~2-4" in the most favorable locations (e.g., Jay Peak in Northern Vermont)

The Thanksgiving storm looks like it will be a dud. While initial forecasts showed "a transfer of energy" to a coastal storm, latest forecasts have the storm weakening as it gets closer to the Northeast U.S. Light snow on Wednesday night across the northern half of New England will give way to rain showers across the region on Thursday. At best, ~2-4" of snow can be expected with this storm across the mountains in northern Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

The weather is looking relatively mild (highs in the 40s, lows near freezing) through next weekend (11/28 and 11/29) with our next potential shot of significant rain or snow on Monday 11/30. Keep in mind there is lots of uncertainty in forecasts 7-10 days out. We'll highlight the details of the long-range forecast in our full post tomorrow (Monday). Enjoy your Sunday.

-Jay Cordeira, Meteorologist