We are getting close to opening day, which is scheduled for Friday, November 10th.

We have seen some snow at Copper this early season, but our natural snowpack is currently below average, and any open terrain will make use of machine-made snow.

The webcams showed that Copper was able to make snow for most of the day on Wednesday, and temperatures over the coming nights should be plenty cold enough for snowmaking, though the snow guns may need to be shut down for a few hours each afternoon during the warmest part of the day.

In terms of natural snowfall, there should be a few flakes on Saturday, with perhaps a dusting to an inch of accumulation, but this will not be a major storm. Next week, we'll see cooler temperatures during the middle and end of the week, which will help with snowmaking, though I do not see much or any natural snow during this time.

I will keep watching for the next potential storm, and in the meantime, let's hope that snowmaking continues to go well and that there is a bit more coverage with each passing day.

Thanks for reading and check back daily for a new update!

JOEL GRATZ, Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com