Daily Archives: December 7, 2011

Most ski enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest will think back fondly on the winter of 2010. Five months of  massive snowfalls kept runs skiable well beyond the usual dates, much to the delight of ski resorts and skiers from the Cascades to the Rockies to the Sierra Nevadas.

In fact, I’d bet that Nina will be a most popular name for baby girls born this year in the western states… in honor of La Niña, that magical ocean-atmosphere phenomenom that graced the west coast with all that snow.

In a nutshell, the La Niña weather pattern starts with slightly lower surface water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Air currents blow cool, moist air across the western states, and voila! Powder on the summits from Tahoe to Sun Valley to Vail. Last year, during the 2010-2011 ski season, La Niña graced ski resorts with epic snow accumulations: a record-braking 524 inches in Vail, 783 inches in Snowbird, and 810 inches on Squaw Valley (that’s over 67 feet – enough to bury a six story building!)

As we watch the skies and the weather reports, anticipating the first real snowstorm of the 2033-2012 season (any day now!) the questions most debated are whether La Niña will return this year: What kind of a snow year will we have? Should we plan a vacation to the mountains, or is this a good year to head to a beach?