Sunday, April 14:

• Boyne Mtn open Sunday

Message from Boyne Mountain about terrain and hours:

We are open Saturday & Sunday from 9am-4:30pm. Mountain Express will be spinning for Hemlock and Victor. There will also be a feature park on lower Victor. If you want late-season bragging rights, we got you.

The showers have already moved east of Boyne Mountain Sunday AM. We'll see a shot at 60 by the afternoon and soft snow all day. 

2023-24 Season Recap:

This was a memorable season with mild temps, rain, and challenging conditions to make and maintain snow on the slopes. Resorts were continuously fighting to keep terrain open and squeezing every ounce out of fleeting snowmaking windows. 

In addition, thanks to the lack of cold air for much of the winter, the lake effect snow belts were starved for snow other than a few brief but fruitful windows, particularly in January. 

Temperature anomalies since early December (a warm winter)

Most if not all resorts saw below-normal snowfall this season and more rain than usual. 

To put this into perspective, below are images showing this season's cumulative snowfall (black line) compared to "normal" (darker blue shading) from locations around the Midwest. 

Resorts on the north shore of Lake Superior struggled for snow this season, with some in the first half of January and then very little until late March when a large system brought multiple days of snow. This is quite the contrast to last season, which was a banner year. 

The Twin Cities region was similar, with a tough winter, with two large rain events in the middle of the season and much of the snow missing to the south and east. The resorts in the region battled through and provided impressive conditions considering how unfavorable much of the season was to make and maintain snow. 

The south shore of Lake Superior was well below normal for snow this season thanks to the lack of cold air. The Porkies only opened for two days I believe and many other locations opened late, closed early, and struggled to open all of the terrain.

During January there was a week+ of continuous lake effect snow that allowed Bohemia to open with stellar conditions and powder days to be had elsewhere.

Beyond that, it was a tough season, summed up by the fact all resorts in the region closed before the middle of April when some can usually make it May for spring corn snow. 

Let's use Grand Rapids, Michigan as a proxy for Lower Michigan, which had superb conditions in January when the lake effect snow belts scored days of powder with persistent westerly winds off of Lake Michigan. This was the best 10-day stretch of the season with gladed runs open in the northern half of Lower Michigan and powder day after powder day. 

The rest of the season was a bit more stop-and-go with more rain than is preferred and only a few decent lake-effect snow events in February and March. 

Resorts in southern Wisconsin had an excellent first half of January, with back-to-back large snow events providing excellent conditions. Very little snow fell during the rest of the season except some after most if not all of the resorts had closed. 

Daily Snow Schedule:

This will be the last Daily Snow of the 2023-24 season - I appreciate everyone who followed along! 

A special shoutout to resorts and their staff this season for battling through the mild winter, providing us with snowy slopes to enjoy all season long. 

I hope that these forecasts aided in optimizing your time on the slopes and we'll see you in October of 2024 for snowmaking season! 

-Croix

Contact: [email protected]

Geography Key

Road Conditions: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin

Summer Weather: How To Use OpenSnow

As the snow begins to melt and summer conditions quickly take over, remember that you can use OpenSnow as your go-to weather app during the non-winter months.

Get started by going to...

1. Favorites > Weather
2. Location > Weather
3. Maps > Weather

Switch to using your "Summer" favorites list, check the "Weather" tab on both the Favorites screen and any location screen, and avoid poor air quality & incoming storms with our summer-focused map layers in the OpenSnow app.

You can also view the hourly forecast for the next 10 days for any location on Earth in OpenSnow.

1. Go to the "Maps" tab.
2. Tap anywhere or search for a city.
3. Tap "View Forecast".

View → Summer Forecasts