Blue Mountain, Shawnee among those that opened trails earlier than usual this season because of favorable weather conditions.
Jim Tust has never had a problem warming up to the thought of a cold spell.
The longtime managing partner of Shawnee Mountain Ski Area in Monroe County sees the region’s most recent streak of sub-freezing temperatures as an opportunity to draw in more skiers, snowboarders and those who just want to slide down a snow-covered hill while sitting on a tube.
Temperatures dipped into the teens in some parts of northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey early Thursday morning. Now, a storm is forecast to bring 6 to 8 inches of snow Saturday to the Lehigh Valley and parts north -- before the precipitation turns to ice overnight into Sunday.
The extended forecast shows a pattern of cold temperatures persisting through next week and perhaps into Christmas, according to meteorologist Frank Lombardo, president of Hackettstown-based WeatherWorks.
For Tust, this is all good news. Around the same time last year, he and those who run other ski areas near the Lehigh Valley fretted over unseasonably warm weather that kept trails from opening.
This year, Shawnee opened its first trails on Nov. 29. It was the day after Thanksgiving, known to most as “Black Friday” but to Tust as “White Friday.” In recent years, there was no “White Friday” at Shawnee because of unfavorable weather conditions, he said.
“That’s about the earliest we ever opened,” Tust said, noting that the resort, just north of Stroudsburg, is scheduled to go from limited hours to its regular daily schedule on Saturday.
Blue Mountain Ski Area & Resort, near Palmerton in Carbon County, also opened its first trails on Nov. 29, a tie for its earliest-ever opening, according to Jim Dailey, the resort’s general manager.
Bear Creek Mountain Resort, outside of Macungie and just west of the Lehigh County border in Berks County, opened Dec. 1, that resort’s earliest-ever opening, Bear Creek says in a news release.
Snow-making conditions
The latest cold spell has put the resorts in aggressive snow-making mode.
When the temperatures get in the teens, Dailey said, Blue Mountain’s automated snow-making system works at a faster rate in part because the system doesn’t need to use as much energy to mimic weather conditions needed to produce quality snow.
“When we get these temperatures, we’re looking at situations where we’re able to get a trail open with two to three days of snow-making,” he said.
Blue Mountain has been operating on regular-season hours, but at reduced rates because fewer trails are open, Dailey said. On Saturday, it plans to make the jump from about a dozen trails to 21 trails, he said, adding the resort will then start charging regular-season rates. He said Blue Mountain hopes to have all of its 39 trails open by Dec. 26.
Christmas week boon
Both Dailey and Tust, from Shawnee, acknowledge the 26th as a crucial date. The week after Christmas and before New Year’s Day can be a windfall for ski resorts, provided the conditions are good.
“We’re off to a great start, but the heart of our season is really the Christmas week,” Tust said. “We’re going to be set up for a really good holiday week. The majority of trails will be open with a good, dependable base (of snow) in case we get rain.”
Lombardo, of WeatherWorks, didn’t offer projections beyond Christmas, but said the region should see a continuation of cold weather leading up to the holiday because of a pattern in the jet stream that keeps pumping arctic air from north and central Canada into the United States. There could be a couple days of warmer weather mixed in, but generally highs will hover around 30 degrees, about 10 degrees below normal for this time of year, Lombardo said.
As for the snow this weekend, the National Weather Service as of Thursday evening had a hazardous weather outlook in place for the region. The outlook calls for accumulating snow starting Saturday morning. The snow will mix in with sleet and freezing rain into Saturday night and early Sunday morning, the weather service says.