January Banter 2026

[Jebman]

They have been plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing the Woolly Lot, but the damn snow just keeps right on. It's the damn Energizer Bunny all over again folks!

That's not all. The radar is truly Brobdingnagian right now. A HUGE, YUGE SWATH of moisture is sweeping right toward the Sierran Cordillera and it is going to dump ridiculous amounts of snow upon Mammoth and countless other resorts into the new day! I would not be surprised if Mammoth picked up a foot or more of freshies overnight. They are gonna get genocided BAD today by torrential snows.

https://www.mammothmountain.com/on-the-mountain/mammoth-webcam/woolly-cam

The radar is evidencing a swath of moisture, inbound to the Sierra, that stretches for hundreds of miles out to sea, maybe even a thousand miles, and the entire movable feast is all gonna train on Mammoth and every other ski resort out there today. We're talking additional FEET of snow yet to fall today folks, maybe even METERS.

The plow guy has got to be totally exhausted right now, but the Blizzard is giving NO quarter and this sonofabitch is TAKIN NO PRISONERS.

[nj2va]

7 hours ago, pazzo83 said:

I found myself pulling for the Big East and the ACC last tourney - we gotta stand up for the basketball conferences.

I’m a college football fan but I hate what it’s done to the Conferences.  I’d love if ACC/Big East entered into some type of basketball partnership where they ‘merge’ for basketball or something like that.

[nj2va]

1 hour ago, Jebman said:

They have been plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing and plowing the Woolly Lot, but the damn snow just keeps right on. It's the damn Energizer Bunny all over again folks!

That's not all. The radar is truly Brobdingnagian right now. A HUGE, YUGE SWATH of moisture is sweeping right toward the Sierran Cordillera and it is going to dump ridiculous amounts of snow upon Mammoth and countless other resorts into the new day! I would not be surprised if Mammoth picked up a foot or more of freshies overnight. They are gonna get genocided BAD today by torrential snows.

https://www.mammothmountain.com/on-the-mountain/mammoth-webcam/woolly-cam

The radar is evidencing a swath of moisture, inbound to the Sierra, that stretches for hundreds of miles out to sea, maybe even a thousand miles, and the entire movable feast is all gonna train on Mammoth and every other ski resort out there today. We're talking additional FEET of snow yet to fall today folks, maybe even METERS.

The plow guy has got to be totally exhausted right now, but the Blizzard is giving NO quarter and this sonofabitch is TAKIN NO PRISONERS.

Main lodge cam is getting whacked.

[NorthArlington101]

It’s feeling like time to book a quick mountain getaway… maybe finally the year I make it out to Deep Creek

[NorthArlington101]

Also - for whatever my opinion is worth, the server doesn’t have a moderation problem or a people problem. It’s largely a lack of snow problem… plus a little bit of COVID that truly destroyed social order everywhere and we may never recover.
 

There will always be better posters than others, and my recall is that a lot of people have always only shown up for real threats. We’ll always have young people showing up, but that’s how you grow the forum and hopefully make better posters. Forum is better when it snows… that’s all it is. Prob would also help to have meetups again so we don’t only know each other virtually but that’s always tricky (again sort of a COVID problem) 

I also think people have forgotten how to use Banter and the Panic Room - latter of which is on @WxWatcher007for leaving us 

[Ralph Wiggum]

8 minutes ago, Maestrobjwa said:

Yeah I reeeaaallly don't think anybody should be cliff-jumping over hr360. Not after what we saw all last month, and even over the last couple of days. Fact is we just don't know...I'd suggest some spend less time here and less time model to model until we have an actual threat to track.

The only ones cliff diving are the folks that set their expectations higher than a cliff thus the jump. Fact is, neither of our respective regions are notoriously snowy, so expectations always need to remain tempered. Ive grown to assume every winter will be AN temps wall-to-wall with either a drought or zero snowfall. Haven't been disappointed in years.

[Maestrobjwa]

3 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

The only ones cliff diving are the folks that set their expectations higher than a cliff thus the jump. Fact is, neither of our respective regions are notoriously snowy, so expectations always need to remain tempered. Ive grown to assume every winter will be AN temps wall-to-wall with either a drought or zero snowfall. Haven't been disappointed in years.

Well, the notorious part has been more notorious the last 10 years--I think that's the problem. Personally my base expectations were formed by being raised from 1990. A good foot or two every 3-4 years with suckage in between just so happens to be what occurred from then to 2016. But this period of time is the least snow for the longest period of time anybody in my generation has experienced. I have adjusted expectations now--but just wanted to give some perspective.

[EastCoast NPZ]

11 minutes ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Also - for whatever my opinion is worth, the server doesn’t have a moderation problem or a people problem. It’s largely a lack of snow problem… plus a little bit of COVID that truly destroyed social order everywhere and we may never recover.
 

There will always be better posters than others, and my recall is that a lot of people have always only shown up for real threats. We’ll always have young people showing up, but that’s how you grow the forum and hopefully make better posters. Forum is better when it snows… that’s all it is. Prob would also help to have meetups again so we don’t only know each other virtually but that’s always tricky (again sort of a COVID problem) 

I also think people have forgotten how to use Banter and the Panic Room - latter of which is on @WxWatcher007for leaving us 

Great post.  

[Ji]

1 hour ago, stormtracker said:

I hate it here.  Grown ass adults mind you. 

we have wasted 45 days of below average cold and nothing to show for it. You should hate it here

[Ji]

41 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

I get being bummed out it’s not gonna snow.  We all like snow, that’s why we’re here for the most part.  But chronic bitching just gets old.  I don’t mind venting, no complaints there.  But ad nauseam, it just sucks the fun out of the place.  It’s hard being patient, but what the fuck us can folks do?

this board has never been fun when we are not snowing in the winter? When have you ever had fun in the weather side of this board when its been dreadful on the weather map

[Ji]

16 minutes ago, Imgoinhungry said:

Someone argued with me a while back that this does happen… we go from no snow on the models to snow. I dont think i have seen it? . However, we always lose digital snow.


.

digital snow on the models is important unless the pattern doesent support it. Then you know its a one off. However, when we are in a good pattern, seeing digital snow whether it verifies or not should be something that pops up on almost every run from one or more of the models

[CAPE]

4 minutes ago, Ji said:

digital snow on the models is important unless the pattern doesent support it. Then you know its a one off. However, when we are in a good pattern, seeing digital snow whether it verifies or not should be something that pops up on almost every run from one or more of the models

You know how it goes at longer range on guidance- always spread/uncertainty, so don't expect to see the snow maps lit up on the mean. Since we aren't going to be in a 'good pattern' for another week or so, maybe stop looking at snow maps at D10+ and expecting to see digital blue over us, then having a hissy fit when you don't. At least keep it out of the discussion thread.

[Maestrobjwa]

32 minutes ago, Ji said:

we have wasted 45 days of below average cold and nothing to show for it. You should hate it here

C'mon man...For the life of me I cannot understand why you don't just take a frickin' break from here when you're frustrated with how things are going. Just take...a break.

[nj2va]

2 hours ago, NorthArlington101 said:

It’s feeling like time to book a quick mountain getaway… maybe finally the year I make it out to Deep Creek

Honestly, we have so many spots to go make a snow chase close by, you should totally do it.  Last week at Deep Creek, it snowed like 5 different days - totally gives me a snow fix that I don’t care (sort of) what happens here lol.

[jac_not_in_dc]

I've headed back west after being in the DMV for a few months, and yesterday I drove across South Dakota and saw some great freezing fog aftermath. (I cropped them and so they'll be pixelated if you look at them on a big screen) It was about 22 degrees when I took these, but after driving across the Midwest on Thursday and Friday and dealing with the lake effect snows and the temps in the teens, 22 was a day at the beach.

 

[nj2va]

1 hour ago, NorthArlington101 said:

Also - for whatever my opinion is worth, the server doesn’t have a moderation problem or a people problem. It’s largely a lack of snow problem… plus a little bit of COVID that truly destroyed social order everywhere and we may never recover.
 

There will always be better posters than others, and my recall is that a lot of people have always only shown up for real threats. We’ll always have young people showing up, but that’s how you grow the forum and hopefully make better posters. Forum is better when it snows… that’s all it is. Prob would also help to have meetups again so we don’t only know each other virtually but that’s always tricky (again sort of a COVID problem) 

I also think people have forgotten how to use Banter and the Panic Room - latter of which is on @WxWatcher007for leaving us 

Let’s do a NVA/DC meetup for anyone who wants to….MDers of course welcomed but I’m not going into MD for it  

[Ji]

C'mon man...For the life of me I cannot understand why you don't just take a frickin' break from here when you're frustrated with how things are going. Just take...a break.

Why would I take a break? Who else am I gonna vent about snow too …my wife?

I take a break from March to November

[Jebman]

Woolly is getting annihilated right now! HUGE AGGREGATES! Snow is just piling up!

https://www.mammothmountain.com/on-the-mountain/mammoth-webcam/woolly-cam

[Ji]

12 minutes ago, Jebman said:

Woolly is getting annihilated right now! HUGE AGGREGATES! Snow is just piling up!

https://www.mammothmountain.com/on-the-mountain/mammoth-webcam/woolly-cam

who cares bro. We live in the DMV. At least we can drive to places like Tug hill or buffalo or Davis WV. California is a pipe dream

[Ji]

we lost an inch from 00z but this map is something you would see in those famously bad winters like 01-02, 22-23, 19-20.

[Ji]

@mitchnickthis was the snow chart at this time last year

[Maestrobjwa]

25 minutes ago, Ji said:

@mitchnickthis was the snow chart at this time last year

And it ended up being not horrible but still below median (at least here anyway)

[Ji]

And it ended up being not horrible but still below median (at least here anyway)

It was mostly due to bad luck and last minute south and east trends

[jonjon]

I probably would have ended up like Ji had I not made the life-altering decision to live here over 20 years ago.

 

You're welcome.

[NorthArlington101]

5 minutes ago, dailylurker said:

I've always been in the "no snow is like snow at home" until I spent nearly a week on the Tug. In that time I witnessed nearly 100" of snowfall. I spent time there. I went grocery shopping, went to dispensaries, went on hikes (on snowmobile trails lol). It was like i lived there. I wasn't in a hotel. I was in a house (Airbnb). It made the experience a lot like getting 100" at home without being snowed in for a month. I stayed in Pulaski one night for the mega band. Nearly 4 feet fell overnight. By 9am the town was fully open. I highly suggest any snow lover do a week on the Tug. F our shitty climo lol

My big concern was the driving with a crummy car for snow, crummy tires, and just no experience doing it. Was gonna interrogate ya’ll about it after. Sounds like it wasn’t too bad 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Holy s*it!  Three words I thought could never be uttered given how bad the Cleveland Browns Clowns are!!!...

Cleveland Browns Win!! 

[mitchnick]

1 hour ago, Ji said:

@mitchnickthis was the snow chart at this time last year

Eps snowfall has been too snow crazy for years and I've cursed it many a time. And that's why current runs of 1-2" are so troubling.

[Jebman]

1 hour ago, Ji said:

who cares bro. We live in the DMV. At least we can drive to places like Tug hill or buffalo or Davis WV. California is a pipe dream

I need to go visit the Tug sometime. Sounds like a Blast!

[T. August]

Ravens gotta get the dub tonight, this weather shit sucks.

[Ralph Wiggum]

If you could live thru the Blizzard of 66 KU storm knowing the end result, would you stay at your home base and enjoy a classic KU snowstorm or would you travel to Oswego and endure the 8.5' of LES?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_1966