It just keeps on snowing! by Isobel Lang
While our European ski resorts are struggling a little with snow, the American resorts are seeing significant amounts and this is bringing mixed fortunes.
Crested Butte, Colorado, has seen the heaviest snow for a decade. After a snowstorm last week, there was 5 feet, 1.5metres, of lying snow. This has obviously been keeping the boarders happy.
In the more western state of Utah, the past fortnight has seen 6 to 8 feet of snow across the Wasatch mountains, that’s almost 2.5 metres. This heavy, wet snow, coming in on a series of Pacific storms, has brought a significant avalanche risk. On Friday, near the resort of Park City, a major avalanche trapped several skiers. At the time of writing, rescue was set to resume this morning. Even before Friday, this had already been one of the most severe winters for avalanches in Utah for the past 50 years.
Parts of Hawaii saw snow too. Up in the mountains, heavy snow fell on Friday, with Mauna Kea reporting nearly 6 inches, 15 cm.
Conditions are proving rather frustrating in Johannesburg, South Africa. There were several lengthy rain delays at the Fourth Test on Friday, and after thunderstorms and rain overnight, the forecast was relatively cool and mixed for this weekend. Just to give you an idea of how wet is has been recently, Pretoria recorded 48mm rain in 24 hours up to 0600GMT today, with the monthly average around 125mm.
Finally, the weather here in the United Kingdom seems unusually quiet after such horrendous conditions since the start of the year. However, during this coming week we are keeping a close eye on developments, with much colder, windier weather expected during Monday night and Tuesday. There is the potential for significant snow and gales across northern areas, especially Scotland, with blizzards in the mountains.
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