March 12 Report

Many thanks to Doug for this final report and all his amazing work. Thanks also to Jeff for his excellent  help throughout the season. Unless we get a good snowfall, there won’t be any more grooming. You’ll probably still be able to ski throughout the next week, but likely on thin snow mixed with patches of bare grass.

Here’s Doug’s report this morning:

It is the end!

Thursday evening I spent some time trying to make a usable track for Saturday's last hurrah.  The classic track was reset. The tracks were moved to new snow wherever possible and they are about 90 % covered with snow on the bottom of the tracks.  Beware of hills on southern facing slopes; the sun has done its duty.     

The skate track is better and has been moved in only a couple of places. The hills are a problem and may take a few feet of grass skiing. The bridge across the river has about 10 ft of bare concrete and the far end of the Cow Pasture by the freeway is also bare. I would give up on the Cow Pasture.Lastly, I would get out early before the snow turns to slush. We have had a great season of skiing; considering the low amount snow we have received, it was almost a miracle.  Enjoy today!

March 5 report

 Sorry I didn’t get this posted sooner. Doug sent this text two hours ago, but Jeff and I were at a race and just saw this. Thanks, Doug! Here’s his report: 

I tuned up the skate track as best I could.  It is not good,  We are at the end unless we get snow. What we have is very thin and therefore I was not able to smooth it with the tines. People were skiing before I finished so it is better than the alternative.  Have a great day.

February Weather Report

Lee Warnick sends out a monthly report on Rexburg weather, under a Google Groups "Rexburg Weather Group". I thought this was interesting; he gave me permission to share it here.

Temperature

High temperatures: 26.7 / 6.3 degrees below normal

Low temperatures: 8.6 / 5.8 degrees below normal

Zero or below days: 7   Normal: 4.3

Highest wind gust: 35 mph on the 20th

Number of windy days: 1    Normal: 4.1

Highest temperature: 41 on the 20th

Lowest temperature: -6 on the 27th

Lowest wind chill: -21 on the 23rd and 27th

Daily records set: High  0     Low  3

   • 4th lowest February high temps in 51 years and coldest since 1989 (that 1988-89 winter still sends chills down my spine); 7th coldest February low temps in 51 years.

   • Visualize the high pressure system dominating our weather for almost the past two months as a giant dome that blocks or diffuses incoming storm systems or steers them elsewhere. Most of the meager snow we've received has been generated inside that dome. High pressure can bring above-normal or even record-breaking high temperatures if it's headquartered in just the right place. This one has been of the more common winter-time variety for us that leads to entrenched cold temps trapped under an inversion, especially if we have snow cover. 

   On a typical day our high temps average about 5 degrees cooler than Salt Lake City's; these past few months it's not been unusual to see 20- to 25-degree differences because of our inversion and all of its attendant blessings (i.e. fog/low clouds). High pressure comes and goes -- after a day, three days, maybe even a week or 10 days for an especially dominant system. But to have our surface maps look just about the same for almost two months, with just a brief respite or two? 

   • Witness: A "neutral" barometric pressure reading is 29.92 inches of mercury. In the 54 days since January 9, we've been below this level at my 7 a.m. observation time only 6 times. Our current streak is 7 days straight above 29.92. 

Precipitation

Precipitation: 0.10 / 13 percent of average

Snowfall: 2.0 / 22 percent of normal

2021-22 water year precipitation (5 of 12 months): 3.90 / 79 percent of average

2021-22 season snowfall: 35.6 / 73 percent of average

Daily records set: Precip  0  Snow  0

Drought status: D1 (Moderate)

   • Tied for 2nd driest February in 51 years, next only to the 0.07 received in 2018. Also tied for 2nd least amount of snow in 51 years, next only to 1.0 inch in 1977 and 2002.

   • These dry extremes have occurred in a La Niña year, which certainly runs against the grain of a usual La Niña winter. The persistent blocking high pressure over the Intermountain West is the giant culprit. We still seem to have so much snow cover because of the unseasonably cold temps we've had along with the extended drier-than-normal spell.

   • The mid- and long-range forecasts still seem to think we'll likely have more La Niña-typical wet weather ahead of us over the rest of winter and into early spring. The first test will be a predicted system coming in this weekend. But what at first looked like a promising storm has been gradually dialed back the past few days to where probs of precip are no higher than 50 percent, and we're not likely to see much more than an inch or so of snow. After that? Back to colder-than-usual weather.

March 1 morning news

 Doug said the Maverick is now repaired and he will head out to soften up the skate track this morning. It was pretty hard-packed and a little rutted yesterday so this is great news.

We still have a 99% skiable track, so come have fun while it lasts!