Snow Forecast Tools
In the heart of winter I often find myself watching weather for 10-12 different zones in 5 states as I plan my next storm-chasing mission. The only problem with my endless snow geekery is that it's the equivalent of a full time job for me to obsess over snotel forecasts, five different weather forecasts (do I believe NOAA or Weather Underground?) and every avy forecast I can find. Lucky for me there are a bunch of new websites out there that help me understand where the snow is and let me obsess about other things (like whether todays pow forecast means I should be riding Lotus 120s or Lotus 138s.)
A couple of my favorite new snow forecast sites:
Colorado Powder Forecast - This site is run by an actual meteorologist and powder enthusiast Joel Gratz. Each week he issues an entertaining report giving a skiing specific forecast of where the powder will be falling in CO. It's easy to sign up for a weekly e-mail and just about the time you start wondering "where will I find pow this weekend?" you've got an answer in your inbox.
WasatchSnowInfo.com - This site (along with TetonSnowInfo and WesternSnowInfo) aggregates all the snow research tools you might look at in one easy to use site. It doesn't offer a full forecast but it's certainly easier to peek at this dashboard instead of opening 12 different sites every time I want to know what's happening. I'm not completely sold on the site layout and the ads are a little distracting but I guess the site owners have to pay their bills. Regardless, a great resource for skiers.
And a request for the snow loving web-geeks - is there any site that aggregates snotel data? Everyone knows snowfall reports from resorts are exaggerated and not to be trusted but the only alternative I know of is looking at snotel data. Unfortunately the snotel sites aren't exactly optimized for skiers. I'd love to see a site that aggregates info from all the snotel sites located near major skiing zones. Does this exist? If someone builds it I promise to give you props on the DPS blog.