Weather Obsessed

When I was in high school, my great-uncle Bill would watch The Weather Channel 24/7.  If there was a 2% chance of precipitation, Uncle Bill knew about it.  He (God Rest his Soul  - as my grandmother would have said) was worried about getting out and getting to church on a daily basis, and about whether my grandmother would need a heavier coat when he picked her up (she always needed a heavier coat).

Over the past ten years, I have developed an Uncle Bill-like obsession with weather.  It will not surprise those of you who know me, however, that my obsession has nothing to do with getting out and getting to church.  It has to do with skiing.

Like a farmer, I watch the weather during the growing and harvesting season for skiing: late fall through spring. I watch the weather on television (I'm partial to Matt Noyes and the weather team at NECN - I have yet to have Matt steer me wrong), check it obsessively on line (in this blog I will frequently - with his permission - summarize Josh Fox's Single Chair Weather Blog) and look at the TWC app on my phone about every twenty minutes.  Because, hey, you never know.  The Higher Summits forecast might have Sugarbush getting 3 inches of snow when the valley forecast has it getting only an inch.  When we wake up at my ski condo, two things are usually happening: coffee is brewing, and the local ski channel is on with the weather report.

I sleep better with a sound machine - unless it's set to the rain storm setting.  Like Pavlov's dog, the sound of rain gets an immediate reaction from me:  it reminds me of snow melting at a rate 10 times faster than it does in the sun, and creates stress - not what you want when you are trying to fall asleep.

At this time of year, there isn't much out there about ski season weather.  I have to reduce myself to discussions of acorns (more means a snowy winter), hornet's nests (the higher up they make them, the better - check out Win's Word: http://www.sugarbush.com/blogs/wins-word/farmers-almanac-on-our-side-208 ), and what the Farmer's Almanac has to say.  With some friends who are equally weird, I can talk about things like El Nino, whether my right knee hurting means it's going to snow, or the fact that warmer weather early in the season isn't necessarily a bad thing because Lake Champlain won't freeze, which can really seed the snow clouds - you know, typical cocktail party conversation.

If you're someone who is interested in those conversations, stay tuned.  I'm doing research right now, and will be back with some ski season 2012-2013 predictions.  In the mean time, check out Tim Kelley - his video ski and surf reports for skitheeast.net are great:

http://www.skitheeast.net/posts/id/1503050609/tim-kelleys-post-sandy-snowcast

And besides, I like any man who talks about skiing while surfing.