November 28th, 2025
Talk about perfect timing!
Mother Nature certainly provided for Day of the Devoted.
A few inches of snow began just after meal time Thanksgiving, before a brief lull allowing us to get to the mountain with relative ease before snow started pouring down again.
We actually went about four days without an inch of snow between Monday and Thursday. But that was kind of an aberration, given this season has been off the charts snow cycle-wise. We now have over 100 inches for the season ~ and it’s not even December yet!
This new snow cycle really ramped up with the first chair Friday morning. Snow became heavy and lasted most of the day. We don’t have the final number, but I would estimate we end up somewhere between 12 and 15 inches.
Low pressure to our north, which generated the first blizzard of the season over Lake Superior, moved to our north and slowed down, supplying us with a beautiful Jay Cloud.
And the wind was just light enough, as far as I know, there was minimal impact on the lift service. Now we have another little lull. But this one’s not going to last days, this is only hours. Lighter snow continues overnight into the first thing Saturday. We may see a glimpse of the sun with temperatures in the 20s for our Saturday as weak high pressure goes by. So it looks like both a powder and groomer kind of day. And with the wind distribution, there'll be some knee-deep drifts, and also some scoured areas.
Saturday evening cools off quickly with temperatures going down into the teens briefly before the next weather system races in here on Sunday. There’s a major winter storm from Montana to Illinois. That’s going to bring a warm front with another batch of moderate to perhaps heavy snow first thing Sunday, probably another 4 inches between 5 and 11 AM. Ultimately that low pressure center will track just to our north on Sunday afternoon. So that means our air is coming from the south, perhaps gusting past 35 mph with the temperature climbing out of the teens into the 20s. We may make it up into the lower 30s briefly on the warm front by Sunday evening before the next wind shift and air comes back from the northwest with more snow for Sunday night. That’s another Jay Cloud into Monday morning with probably 3 or 5 inches more snow by Monday morning. Monday looks like a pretty cold day with temperatures mostly in the teens and diminishing wind equal chance for light flakes as perhaps sunny breaks.
Then, as we talked about the last couple weeks, we’re watching Canada refill with cold. Some of the coldest air on earth is in fact flowing from Siberia to our side of the north pole next week. At the same time, the parade of powerhouse storms off the Pacific Ocean continues. And the next weather system is going to be a doozy coming on Tuesday.
It’s a full on northeaster that we are only on the northern edge of. The kind of cold storm you would see closer to Christmas than the first days of December.
It will be a powering storm with the center going right over Cape Cod Tuesday night. Snow will return to Jay Peak before noon on Tuesday, becoming moderate to heavy Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night.
The temperature on Tuesday may not get above 20°, so it’s a very dry snow. And fortunately the powerful wind should stay off to our south. We are on the northern edge of this storm. Close enough to get snow and far enough away that we don’t have that much wind. The early call on Tuesday snow would be about another 8 inches or so, very low density snow. The wind will pick up a bit Tuesday night and Wednesday as that low pulls away, but wind speeds at this time do not look overall imposing.
The temperature on Wednesday should recover back to the lower 20s with flakes and breaks.
By then we are tracking some serious Arctic air coming across Central and eastern Canada. It’s not clear whether that Arctic air will plunge in here on Thursday-Friday or not.
But either way it should keep on snowing.
Maybe not a big organized system Thursday and Friday but upslope and Jay Cloud should deliver several more inches. There’s a chance that if Siberian air does get in here by Thursday night and Friday we could have temperatures going below 0°F for the first time since late last winter.
This kind of early season pattern seems a bit unreal, one would think it's unsustainable. But right now it looks like we are going to stay on the snowy and cold side of things for the most part, into the second week of December anyway.
I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving.
I’m making a nice turkey soup.
I’ll be heading back up north again next week.
Kind of breathless over this pattern.
Yes historic ~ but I am doing my best not to be histrionic.
Happy weekend, talk to you again Tuesday.
TK
