{"id":2449492,"date":"2019-10-03T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T03:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=313853"},"modified":"2019-10-04T08:26:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T14:26:01","slug":"aspenweather-net-forecasts-that-local-skiers-will-rejoice-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspenweather-net-forecasts-that-local-skiers-will-rejoice-once-again\/","title":{"rendered":"AspenWeather.net forecasts that local skiers will rejoice once again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cory Gates talks about his predictions for the 2019-2020 winter season at a party hosted by the local micro-forecaster subscription service AspenWeather.net at Mi Chola in Aspen on Thursday.<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen skiers will rejoice again this winter because of the snow conditions, AspenWeather.net meteorologist Cory Gates predicted Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Snowfall totals at Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk probably won\u2019t be as prolific as last season, he said, but there is a good chance that precipitation will be normal to slightly above.<\/p>\n

AspenWeather.net is an online, subscription-based micro-forecaster for the Aspen areas and the four uppervalley ski areas. The 8-year-old service typically throws a winter outlook party. This year\u2019s shindig was at Mi Chola.<\/p>\n

Gates\u2019 forecast for snowfall totals between Oct. 1 and \u201cearly May\u201d were 285 to 321 inches at Aspen Mountain, 310 to 346 inches at Snowmass and 305 to 341 inches at Aspen Highlands (with more in Highland Bowl). He didn\u2019t include Buttermilk in his forecast.<\/p>\n

The normal snowfall is 285 to 320 inches, so he foresees Highlands and Snowmass a little above average and Aspen Mountain dead on.<\/p>\n

AspenWeather.net partner Ryan Boudreau called Gates a \u201cgold-medal winning meteorologist\u201d who typically nails his predictions for snowfall. Gates acknowledged he was on the low side last season, but no one was complaining.<\/p>\n

For this season, Gates foresees a slow start to the season, with dry conditions in October and November. It will be almost the opposite of last season, when Aspen Mountain opened early because of great natural snowfall and snowmaking conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not expect that this year,\u201d Gates said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a slow start.\u201d<\/p>\n

A slide projected on a screen at the restaurant asked, \u201cDoes that mean we\u2019re going to be screwed? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the slow start, he predicted prolific snowfall will fall during the heart of the season to bring totals back to average. He had one caveat \u2014 there could be a dry period buried somewhere in the season.<\/p>\n

Gates said he bases his Aspen-area forecasts 40% on current trends, 20% on models and 40% on past seasons with similar conditions. He sees this late summer as a blend of August 2013 and 2014, when warm conditions yielded to cold conditions along the West Coast of the U.S., creating a jet stream favorable for central Colorado for the winter.<\/p>\n

The winter of 2013-14 was one of the best ever for snowfall while 2014-15 was average. However, he warned that January 2015 was one of the driest for the month in Aspen\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells you we might have one bad month,\u201d Gates said of this season.<\/p>\n

He stressed that there will be numerous days without sunspots this winter and that will have a dramatic impact on the winter weather. Data show low solar often results in \u201clots of snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, 2007-08 was a low solar year that resulted in lots of snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no guarantee it\u2019s going to kick our butts again, but it\u2019s a trend,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n

Gates took a shot at scientists \u2014 the vast majority of them \u2014 that are forecasting global warming due to release of greenhouse gases. He claimed they are wrong because their data comes from urban islands where temperatures are showing warming because of all the asphalt. That\u2019s skewing the data, he contended.<\/p>\n

He predicted a low solar period for the \u201cnext umpteen years.\u201d That will result in the Northern Hemisphere cooling over the next decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe global warming fanatics will be proven wrong,\u201d Gates boldly proclaimed.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cory Gates talks about his predictions for the 2019-2020 winter season at a party hosted by the local micro-forecaster subscription service AspenWeather.net at Mi Chola in Aspen on Thursday.Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Aspen skiers will rejoice again this winter because of the snow conditions, AspenWeather.net meteorologist Cory Gates predicted Thursday night. Snowfall totals at Aspen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 19:44:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449512,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449492\/revisions\/2449512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}