Boston Bulldog

Tough news out of Magic Mountain regarding progress on the Black chair: https://magicmtn.com/alpine-update/ What stood out to me is that the timeline for the lift has been pushed back to "carrying passengers at some point this season if all goes well". With the lack of resources available to Magic ownership, and the difficult nature of the new projects they need to complete before the lift can spin, I think its a safe bet the Quad won't spin this year. Pretty unfortunate as the general unreliability of the Red Chair can leave them without summit access for extended periods. I hope they can catch a break and finally complete the project as it's pretty essential to securing the future of Magic. Such a great mountain with amazing terrain. I still am hoping to get 3-4 days in there when (if?) the base is good in SVT.

6 inches at Breckenridge last night which already eclipsed forecasted snow totals for the week. 4 at Copper, 1-3 elsewhere. Another backdoor pulse of energy is coming down the trough tonight, perhaps a few more inches in favored areas. While this fluff won't do too much for the SWE of the snowpack, it is nice to see CO cash in a bit after just missing out on last weeks bonanza.

Perhaps a bit of a sleeper NW flow event for Summit County and other favored areas this week. Positioning on the upstream side of the trough is conducive enough to bring decent amounts of jet energy into the region, so I would expect orographically favored spots should be able to squeeze out some good localized showers over the next few days. Breckenridge already showing decent accumulation, I think some ski areas might be pleasantly surprised over the next few days.

Amazing totals out west, though Colorado seems to be getting mere scraps. Hoping they cash in and build a good base before the January AMS conference in Denver

Fully tropical now according to NHC

Any of the Cottonwood resorts (Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude) in Utah are probably your best bet due to their unique microclimate. Snowbird and Alta are the largest out of those, and receive the highest annual snowfall of any US resort outside of the Cascades/Sierras. Those two average around 500" a season, while nearby Park City typically sees totals in the 300"-400" inch range, so the Cottonwoods have an advantage over other areas even locally thanks to their microclimate. Utah can get unlucky and get stuck in extended dry periods from time to time, so the most "coverage proof" early season resort in North America is probably Whistler above mid mountain. The base area gets warm and can flip to rain during some storms, but with a 5000ft vertical drop its not hard to find good coverage up top. Wolf Creek and Targhee are good bets as well, but on the smaller side. Larger spots in CO, as well as Jackson Hole and Big Sky, need a lot of snow to fill in their terrain so openings aren't as reliable by Christmas.

Some impressive gravity wave signatures showing up on radar training over the Hudson River Valley right now. Absolutely pouring, but not much wind to speak of thus far

You aren't kidding, suspicious looking curved band on the north side of the center per the last SSMIS pass

https://www.metoc.navy.mil/fnmoc/tropical.html Click on the Satellite Imagery of Tropical Cyclones link. It often gives a "not secure" warning, just as a heads up. Probably one of the more comprehensive pages for TC information

SSMIS pass shows the outer eyewall making progress, but still open to the south

As the effects of Typhoon Merbok on the general NH longwave pattern, CONUS wavebreaking event, and subsequent downstream trough come into focus, we should start to see more of a consensus develop on the future of Fiona. The ultimate destination of this system (if it survives the Greater Antilles intact) will be beholden to the structure of the rossby wave pattern. The run to run differences in the positioning of the 500mb trough on the Euro and GFS runs remains quite significant, and likely won't be resolved until ET Merbok completes building the ridge over the Aleutians and the Bering Sea.

Quite the beefy eyewall taking shape on the latest SSMIS microwave imagery

Thinking Earl may peak at a similar intensity to Larry last year given the similarities in the structure of the eye (though far more banding features are present with Earl)

Having now crossed the 26*C isotherm, Kay's core is predictably beginning to degrade. While it may not have reached it's full intensity potential, the moisture envelope remains as impressive as modeled and is beginning to push into SoCal on WV imagery

An anomalous ridge+heatwave meets an anomalous Hurricane. Quite the week for southern California