A Great Season

The nordic season comes to a close today. It was a good year. Lots of early snow and the track stayed great through out the year. Now as the days are getting longer and the melting increases areas of the golf course are starting to appear. Over the past few springs, local dust storms in the valley have carried dust to the course have helped increase the melting process by attracting more heat. For getting out on the golf course this can be a good thing, however when dust accelerates snow melt from the peaks, high run-off can happen earlier than normal and become treacherous to creek banks and floodplain areas.

Over the next few days we will be plowing paths and removing signage from the track. Contractors will be on-site next week to start the 7th tee project and finish the lightning shelter near the 11th green. Next we will be cleaning up around the bridges and putting the finishing touches on them as well.

As for the month of March, we nearly matched the snowfall for February with 50 inches. March beat January by 5 inches. We received a total of 2.61 inches of moisture. However, much of that is beginning to melt or evaporate into the atmosphere. The average high temperature for March was 40 degrees and the average low was 16.5 degrees. We received three days in the middle of March of 55 degree days and we bottomed out at 1 degree towards the beginning of the month.

Blah

The weather is turning cold and gray again. We received 17 inches of snow over the past two days and made for some great skiing. The weather this week has put a halt to greens clearing. We are hoping for some more sun on Friday.

Meanwhile we are continuing to groom the nordic track for the last week of the season. Yesterday we began plowing some of the paths on the course so we could get to the greens easier. We will also be plowing to the 7th tee area to pick up where we left off in the fall.

Pictured here is the latest total snowfall. With all of the sun yesterday, the new snow began melting right away. When the snow melts during the early spring, the snow tends to settle quickly. 17 inches can turn into only a couple of inches fast.

The second picture is our weather monitoring station for the National Weather Service. On the left is the measuring stick for total snowfall. In the middle, between the two stakes is a plate that measures each snowfall. It is similar to a cafeteria tray that we measure each snow fall from. One we take the measurement, we wipe it clean. On the right is the measuring can. This is used to measure the moisture from each snowfall. We swap out the can each day and let the snow melt to measure the moisture. In the summer it collects rain.

These items are checked each day at 7am, 365 days a year.