A decent shot at snow overnight Wednesday into Thursday will set up a lot of Upstate for a great riding weekend going into President’s Day!
Mild temperatures will continue across Upstate for today and during the day on Wednesday. Mild being around freezing to a little above, especially lower elevations. Areas with low snow cover will suffer over the next two days and areas that just got back into the game after this storm last Friday may have some hurt on them. Not major though.
Once again a similar situation to last Friday in terms of storm track, running just to our south across Pennsylvania into southern New England. This puts Upstate on the cold side of the storm and hence snow, the big change in the weather pattern we’ve seen since the beginning of this month. Locations near 17/86 from Corning to Binghamton, along I-88 from there to the immediate Capital Region, and points south will be close enough to the storm track to have some rain mix in and/or have the snow be more of a heavy wet snow. The rest of Upstate from all of Western NY, through Central NY, into the Tug Hill, Adirondacks, and North Country this is going to be a decent run of the mill snow event… enough to shovel and snowblow… enough to make travel on the Thursday morning commute difficult… but it will not be as bad as last Friday because the storm will not be as strong nor last as long. Yes an isolated 8″ amount could happen, but this looks actually like one of the easier calls on a snowmap and all models are on board with it.
What happens behind the storm sets us up for clubs to pack/add this to the base, groom it down, freeze it down and set up President’s Day Weekend as the best riding and most areas to ride of the season across Upstate New York.
FINALLY. I CAN SAY THAT. Was wondering if winter would ever show up. Better late than never… and even if not around for long something is better than nothing…
The COLD coming in behind this storm is serious business. Valentine’s Day on Friday will be BITTER COLD. If you and your mate would LOVE nothing more than to ride, make sure you are bundled up well. Temps in the single digits and teens by day… BELOW ZERO AT NIGHT heading into Saturday the 15th. If your better half doesn’t like to ride, may I highly suggest you keep them warm and cuddled close lest you get more than a cold shoulder! The cold and snow pack on the trails will be waiting for you on Saturday morning the 15th. That could be one of the coldest mornings of the winter. And this will give the clubs and groomers chances to fill in holes, freeze and flatten everything down.
Riding on Saturday the 15th, especially in the morning, should be great! High traffic areas will take their usual beating, especially with this being a holiday weekend, but they will have the cold and snow to help them rehab the trails as much as possible. Sunday and Monday, especially in the mornings, should provide the best riding conditions we’ve had all season. And enough snow to spread people out so if it’s too busy where you’d like to go, here’s your chance to explore other great clubs neighboring your hot spots.
Don’t look now but Tuesday/Wednesday next week, the party could be over. It’s 7-8 days out so a lot can change and don’t panic just yet… I’m just giving a friendly reminder this is the winter of opportunity. Take it when you can get it, because you never know when it will go away.
Time for me to go away now. Enjoy the day…
Rich
