Look for mild and dry conditions Wednesday through Sunday. All eyes are on Monday when a moisture-laden storm from the southwest and a cold storm from the north will converge on the Four Corners bringing a major drop in temperatures and snow in the northern high terrain. This is hopeful news for crews battling the Luna Fire southeast of Taos and north of Mora which is up to 8,000 acres burned and 0% contained.

Here is an animation loop of the two storms (in blues) impacting the Land of Enchantment Monday and Tuesday. There is a chance the storm will stall out with additional snowfall through Wednesday.

The European and GFS Ensemble forecasts both show decent snowfall for northern New Mexico with the Euro the most bullish as it has the storm stalling for a longer period. If the storm doesn't stall and moves through at a faster clip the snowfall totals will be lower.

Here is the Euro ensemble snowfall through Thursday.

 

Here is the GFS ensemble through Thursday.

The University of Utah ensemble which takes into account temperature and terrain shows the wide range of scenarios for Taos Ski Valley, from 6 inches up to 20 inches, depending on how fast or slow the storm moves through.

This large variance shows that we have low confidence in the snowfall amounts. But we have strong confidence that it will snow and this is good news both for fighting the Luna Fire and for giving mountains a boost heading into the snow-making phase of early November.

We will return to a dry pattern at the beginning of November (the first map below shows a below-average probability for precipitation over New Mexico from October 29 to November 4), however, temperatures should be below normal for this same period (second map below) and this factor should help snow-making efforts.

There are some signals in the long-range forecasts that the storm track could shift south closer to New Mexico in the second half of November. We will be monitoring this closely over the next several weeks.

Exciting Update from OpenSnow on All-Access Group Subscription!

I am stoked to report that OpenSnow has made it easier and less expensive to get your whole family/crew upgraded to All-Access so that they can each create a list of favorite mountains, get the latest Daily Snow emailed to them, see the 10-day forecast, and all the other All-Access features. 

The new All-Access Group Subscription is $39.99/year and includes you + three people. That's $39.99 per year for 4 people = about $10 per year per person. It's a sweet deal.

When you sign up for All-Access Group, you can invite three of your friends or family by entering their email addresses. 

You can purchase the All-Access Group subscription plan right now on our website. It'll come to our iPhone & Android apps soon. Here is more about the Group subscription, new pricing for the Single subscription that starts on Nov 1st, and links to sign up: https://opsw.co/GroupSub.

If you are not currently an All-Access member and are thinking about upgrading, I recommend locking in our lower price of $19/year through October 31, 2020.

Thanks so much for your support and for reading the New Mexico Daily Snow.

¡Viva la nieve, viva Nuevo Mexico!

JULIEN ROSS
[email protected]

Resort Tentative Opening Dates and Season Details

It is incredibly hopeful to see that the majority of New Mexico resorts have announced opening dates that are fairly normal for any year. Click on your favorite mountain(s) below to check out season details, including some new season pass and ticket structures that take into account the reality this year with COVID-19. Please note that opening dates are tentative so please follow mountain websites and social media for the latest information.

Sipapu: November 13

Red River: November 25

Taos Ski Valley: November 26

Ski Santa Fe: November 26 

Pajarito: December 11

Angel Fire: December 11

Ski Apache: TBD

Sandia Peak: TBD