Grooming Report

I don't know which of our groomers went out, but yesterday there was fresh corduroy for skating and the classic tracks looked perfect.  The skiing is as good as ever, so go enjoy it today. We expect some new snow tonight, and the track isn't melting any time soon. It's pretty amazing to be skiing into March.

Have fun!

Grooming Report

It's pretty amazing that we have all our snow (plus the new snow from last night). I just got an update from Doug (thank you!).  He said:

The track was groomed about 10am but then the wind blew it in in places, so this evening just before dark I fixed it. It is beautiful. Should be great skiing tomorrow.

Weather Report

It's pretty remarkable that we still have so much snow. Jeff skied the other night and said the track was good, but because it was so cold it was slow (he was on skate skis). This super-cold weather is a good time to get on classic skis.

In case anyone is interested, here's an update on our current cold snap from our neighbor Lee Warnick:

 Rexburg old-timers may find this hard to believe, but the 8-below-zero low temp yesterday and the 10-below this morning are both records for these dates. The accompanying light breezes have given us wind chills as low as 23-below. 

     Yesterday's high was only 21, a few degrees from a daily record, and today's predicted high is just 22. These temps are about 15 degrees below normal. With tonight's predicted low of 7-below, this will become the longest zero-or-below spell in late February in 10 years.

     By the end of February average highs reach near 40, so we typically see our snow cover start to melt more consistently after Valentine's Day. Not so this year -- once the snow stopped in earnest about two weeks ago, the cold moved right in. Most of our snow mountains are still there, right where we left them.

     There won't be much change in the next week: Temps might barely nose above 32 Saturday and Sunday, but otherwise are predicted to stay solidly below freezing.

     For you weather nerds, yes, we are in a mild temp inversion. Pressures are very high (30.53 right now), steam from the plants on the north side of town are not rising much vertically, and temps in much-more-frigid West Yellowstone are running 5-10 degrees warmer than here. The temps at my home station, a mere 250 feet in elevation above the official airport station, have been running about 5 degrees warmer. That's an inversion!

Cupid Cup 2020 Video

2020 Cupid Cup Race Results

Here are the race results - video and pictures to follow!

https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=210732

Friday Morning Grooming

Randy just finished buffing out the skate track this morning (thank you!). He must have started his day in the middle of the night!  Should be a nice day to ski.

Enjoy!

Cupid Cup Wax Recs

Wednesday Grooming, Cupid Cup, and January Weather Report

Grooming

Randy just texted that he's groomed everything except the Cow Pasture. Thank you, Randy! The long-term forecast looks like winter isn't leaving anytime soon. Enjoy the snow!

Cupid Cup

Just a reminder that you and all your friends & family are invited to join the Cupid Cup on Saturday. Check the Cupid Cup tab up top on the home page for more information. The main course will be closed for the race until around 11am, but there will still be skiing at the Cow Pasture.

January Weather

Also, in case anyone is interested, here's Lee Warnick's January Rexburg Weather re-cap:

Rexburg Temperatures

High temperatures: 30.5 / 2.5 degrees above normal

Low temperatures: 17.0 / 6.1 degrees above normal

Zero or below days: 1     Normal: 6.4

Highest wind gust: 40 mph on the 14th

Number of windy days: 7    Normal: 3.5

Highest temperature: 39 on the 21st

Lowest temperature: -7 on the 10th

Lowest wind chill: -9 on the 15th

     • We saw mildish max temps in January -- highs each day ranged only between 22 and 39, with about half of the days within a few degrees of freezing. No great cold snaps this month.

     • Once more, the most prominent temp feature was the really mild average low temperatures. Our single subzero day was sandwiched between ones with lows around 20. The bounteous cloud-cover was largely the reason: We had cloudy skies for the final 12 days of the month, meaning that not only were we given only rare glimpses of sun, it also meant an insulating blanket, and higher low temps, on most nights.

     • January was snowy -- more about that to come. The first round of storminess brought us classic Pacific winter systems with temps generally in the 20s, and all snow of the typical Rexburg winter dryish variety. The final-week storminess was more like a Pineapple Express, with temps in the 30s and some rain, or occasionally frozen rain, mixed in with the much wetter snow. 

Rexburg Precipitation

Precipitation: 2.16 / 208 percent of average

   Notes: Breaks January monthly record of 1.85 from 1982

Snowfall: 26.7 / 184 percent of average

   Notes: 2nd most January snow in 49 years, second only to 26.8 in 1982

2019-20 water year precipitation (4 of 12 months): 4.02 / 96 percent of average

2019-20 season snowfall: 51.6 / 128 percent of average

     • Yep, this was our all-time wettest January, easily so, and it was almost the snowiest one ever. (It also could have been a record-breaker -- snowfall measurement is tricky, and when in doubt I tend toward the conservative. It's safe to say this January ranks right there with the epochal winters of the early 1980s.) 

     • This month featured two half-inch precip days (we'd only seen seven of these in the previous 48 Januarys). The month (as well as year and decade) began with one of the Top 3 snowstorms of all time, a monster system that registered 0.60 precip / 8.5 inches. Things quieted down for the next several days to give us time to dig out, and then a week-long series of generally light storms added 0.34 precip / 6.5 inches. After another quiet week, the month ended with a week of wet storms that occasionally mixed in rain with the snow. This final week registered an impressive 1.19 precip (by itself more than the January average) / 11 inches (a lot, but relatively light for that much precip). Of such are record-breaking months built!

     • I've been taking daily snow cover readings (admittedly another quirky stat) since January 1997, and 19 inches is right up there with the deepest January 31 snow cover I've seen since then. However, I do remember measuring somewhere around a thigh-deep 38 inches in the open area to the north of my former Spori Building office sometime before that (we moved to Rexburg in 1988). I don't recall when this was, so it may have to qualify as urban legend until I can confirm when this happened.

     • Our water year has rebounded very nicely: We rocketed from 59 to 96 percent of normal in a single month!

Monday Evening Grooming Report and Cupid Cup invitation

Grooming

Randy called to report he just now finished grooming the course. Thank you, Randy! He set the classic track throughout, except for the Cow Pasture (but I suspect it's still holding up well there). The skate track has been groomed with the Ginzu except for the Clover Leaf. The Clover Leaf has been rolled. Randy will try to get the Ginzu out there later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Just FYI, the tracks that pull the Ginzu are slightly wider than the Ginzu, so it leaves a line in the snow off to the side. Randy is trying to figure out how to fix that. In the meantime, we have no complaints. This is cross-country skiing, after all! We're all set to ski on whatever terrain we can.

Cupid Cup:

Everyone is invited to ski in the Cupid Cup on Saturday. We will have skiers of all levels, so everyone is welcome. Come have fun scooting around or come ready to put it in high gear - either way, it'll be a great day. Check on the Cupid Cup tab on the homepage for registration and more information.

The track is back

Doug just barely texted that the track is back. He said it’s soft in places but should still be good skiing. With both Randy and Doug working so long and hard in such difficult circumstances, I’d say they pulled off a miracle. Enjoy!

Friday Morning Course Update

No tracks groomed or set yet. Read on.

One of the track assemblies on the groomer broke Wednesday so Randy spent several hours yesterday setting up the groomer to work with Doug's Razor. He then spent about 4 hours last night trying to roll out the track in order to pack the snow before grooming it. With a good 8-10" of new powder sitting on top of the frozen track below, it's been quite a struggle. The new snow isn't packing down or incorporating into the track below, so it ends up just being pushed/plowed as the roller goes along. Randy got stuck about six times because of that.

Doug is now out trying to run the Ginzu Groomer (the one jerry-rigged to his Razor). It's going to take some time and effort to get a track set again, so just be patient and enjoy the weather. Apparently we have some more snow in the forecast and - unfortunately - 20-30mph winds expected tomorrow morning.  This is one of the rare times when we might just have too much snow...maybe.

Many thanks to both Doug and Randy for their extraordinary volunteer work, commitment, and expertise.

Not groomed yet

As of Thursday at 1pm, there’s been no grooming yet. The storm finally stopped just a few hours ago and dumped lots of new snow. You can kick a trail if you’d like. I’ll post if I hear anything.

Moose on the course

Heads up, everyone: we have a moose on the course. Pavel reported seeing the moose today near the first bridge to the Cow Pasture loop. This is likely the same moose we've seen before. Some years she has had a calf by her side. We also share the course with deer and small critters; yet another reason we thank you for not bringing dogs out.

Please watch your kids, respect the animals, and keep your distance from all wildlife.