PALMERTON, Pa. — Ideal snowmaking conditions are heavily dependent on overnight temperatures at area ski resorts, and Blue Mountain Resort took full advantage of a recent cold snap to schedule Opening Day on Friday.
At least 12 trails were slated to be open, along with five lifts. Barb’s Way trail, formerly Trails End, also had 11 terrain park features ready to go, according to the resort’s Facebook page.
Snow tubing is slated to open Dec. 8 and will feature new colored lights across the tubing lanes.
A condition report posted to the Blue Mountain website early Friday said the base depth of the snow was 18 to 24 inches.
A cold November
According to a Facebook post, Blue Mountain added 24 fan guns as part of significant snowmaking upgrades for the 2023-24 season.
“These fan guns are safer for our technicians to perform maintenance checks and produce better quality snow,” the post said.
A cold November helped the process along. The Lehigh Valley ended the month with an average temperature of 40.8 degrees — 3.1 degrees below average.
Blue Mountain Resort sits in Carbon County, on the Northampton County border and nearly 40 miles south of Mount Pocono — where the average temperature for the month was 1.3 degrees below average.
The warmest day for the Lehigh Valley last month came on Nov. 7, when the high temperature hit 68 degrees. The coldest night came Nov. 29 into Nov. 30, when the overnight low dipped to 19 degrees.
Overnight lows dipped into the 20s at least 16 of 30 days, according to the National Weather Service. That included a stretch Nov. 12-21 when the average overnight temperature was 26.4 degrees.
A look ahead
Blue Mountain will have to get by on machine-made snow — for now.
Forecasters say unsettled conditions are ahead, but so are mild temperatures.
Rain is expected in the area this weekend, and the weather service said while temperatures will drop below normal later in the week, readings should moderate back close to normal by next weekend.
