We get an over performing snow system

Whew... 

What a day, lots of new snow, lots of intrigue. 

Berkshire East was closed today, due to the threat ice and rain (that never came). 

Here is a shot of the base area, should be sweet tomorrow and the holiday weekend!

Time to recap

We made the decision (a poor one in hindsight) to close due to impending freezing rain. The decision was made at about 6:30 am, and revolved around a freezing rain and rain line that was pretty near Berkshire East. 

The bad news was also the good news. 

The snow never stopped, except for some passing showers, this borderline storm was all snow. 

Unfortunately, our decision to close did kick up a little controversy on the internet. All that I can say is that we do our best to make judgement calls on the side of safety. We have a lot of people, a lot of groups, a lot of kids, and a lot of employees travel to the mountain each day. 

When our weatherman called at 6, he said a nasty freezing rain and ice event was imminent. Boom, right there its an easy call and my dad made it. 

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the storm continued to dump. Here is analysis from Mike Knight, a weather afficiando. 

"I was following this threat for the past week or so, and originally it was slated to be too warm, as typically happens with an upper level low sliding to our west. ...The strength of the high to our north was very poorly modeled until about 48 hours ago, and just about every model (save for the GFS/NAM) trended much colder. With cold high pressure to our North that had a piece of the polar airmass associated with it, cold air drained down from the north, and prevented the warm layer in the mid-levels of the atmosphere from reaching our area. Originally it was slated to rain all the way up to the Canadian border, and later models indicated that it would be pretty much at the MA/VT/NH border. Of course, the cold air over-performed, and the rest is history.It was a very, very difficult forecast, which really could have gone either way. Obviously this is a much better solution."

So there you go. 

Over performing cold, maybe things are turning in our direction in this crazy winter.