J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by admin

The Border Mail is reporting that...

A SERIES of cold fronts is set to deliver as much as 50 centimetres of snow to alpine resorts and 30 millimetres of rain across the Victorian North East by the week's end.

Light snow is reported to be falling at Fall's Creek already.

For the full report click here.

This just in from the team at TC, NZ :-

Temperatures have finally dropped to consistently below zero from the start of the week and snowguns are operating on Easy Rider and upper Main St...

Some large 'whales' have now been deposited and several of the upper guns are being moved down to extend the white ribbon. While this looks promising the reality is Treble Cone is a big mountain and the snow making system is more for supplementing a base and maintenance, rather than to open without snow.

We need a natural snow fall to get going in the next while so keep up the snow dances (for the energetic), small whispered words (for those less so) and keep an eye on the met service outlook.

The Dominion Post reports that...

Turoa skifield on Mt Ruapehu is set to open tomorrow for the start of the ski season.

After a slow start, the area's ski resorts have had some decent snow over the past weekend.

The skifield received 32 cm of snow last weekend and more snow is forecast over the next three days followed by fine weather.

RAL also reported 15 cm snowbase at Whakapapa skifield which is due to open next Saturday, July 2.

For the full report click here.

Treble Cone near Lake Wanaka has ranked first in a survey out today by Australian magazine, Your Money, to find the best value ski area throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Comparing 11 major resorts in Australia and New Zealand, including packages and prices for peak season dates in July and August, each resort was given a score based on key attributes consumers look for when planning a trip to the snow. These included the cost of travel and accommodation, equipment hire, lift passes and quality of snow and terrain.

"Treble Cone stood out as a top performer for quality of skiing, annual snow fall and the diversity and nature of the terrain", said Lisa Narroway of Your Money Magazine.

"With the Australian dollar so strong, New Zealand is a very affordable choice for Australians this winter", said Nigel Kerr, Treble Cone marketing manager.

"All New Zealand ski areas did well in the Your Money Magazine survey but the fact Treble Cone came out top shows how important space, personal service and big vertical are when people evaluate a skiing experience. Combine this with New Zealand's most diverse freeride terrain and that unforgettable view, and you can see the appeal!"

Treble Cone is scheduled to open on 23 June for the 2011 season. For further information, visit http://www.treblecone.com/

tino_11 wrote:I fail to see the point of summer anymore. Winter then Spring, over and over would suit me just fine :)

Be careful what you wish for...

As just posted in the News section - sun spot activity is currently less than expected, and the sun may be about to enter a quiet period.

The well-known "Maunder Minimum" (when very few sun spots were observed) lasted 70 years and coincided with the "Little Ice Age".

Fancy a 70-year ski season??? :shock: :D :D :D

The following Press Release was issued yesterday by scientists from the US National Solar Laboratory.

"If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades," Hill said. "That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate."

WHAT'S DOWN WITH THE SUN? MAJOR DROP IN SOLAR ACTIVITY PREDICTED

A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

As the current sunspot cycle, Cycle 24, begins to ramp up toward maximum, independent studies of the solar interior, visible surface, and the corona indicate that the next 11-year solar sunspot cycle, Cycle 25, will be greatly reduced or may not happen at all.


Image courtesy of Wattsupwiththat - Average magnetic field strength in sunspot umbras has been steadily declining for over a decade. The trend includes sunspots from Cycles 22, 23, and (the current cycle) 24.

The results were announced at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, which is being held this week at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces: http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/SPD2011/

"This is highly unusual and unexpected," Dr. Frank Hill, associate director of the NSO's Solar Synoptic Network, said of the results. "But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation."

Spot numbers and other solar activity rise and fall about every 11 years, which is half of the Sun's 22-year magnetic interval since the Sun's magnetic poles reverse with each cycle. An immediate question is whether this slowdown presages a second Maunder Minimum, a 70-year period with virtually no sunspots during 1645-1715.

Hill is the lead author on one of three papers on these results being presented this week. Using data from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) of six observing stations around the world, the team translates surface pulsations caused by sound reverberating through the Sun into models of the internal structure. One of their discoveries is an east-west zonal wind flow inside the Sun, called the torsional oscillation, which starts at mid-latitudes and migrates towards the equator. The latitude of this wind stream matches the new spot formation in each cycle, and successfully predicted the late onset of the current Cycle 24.

"We expected to see the start of the zonal flow for Cycle 25 by now," Hill explained, "but we see no sign of it. This indicates that the start of Cycle 25 may be delayed to 2021 or 2022, or may not happen at all."

In the second paper, Matt Penn and William Livingston see a long-term weakening trend in the strength of sunspots, and predict that by Cycle 25 magnetic fields erupting on the Sun will be so weak that few if any sunspots will be formed. Spots are formed when intense magnetic flux tubes erupt from the interior and keep cooled gas from circulating back to the interior. For typical sunspots this magnetism has a strength of 2,500 to 3,500 gauss (Earth's magnetic field is less than 1 gauss at the surface); the field must reach at least 1,500 gauss to form a dark spot.

Using more than 13 years of sunspot data collected at the McMath-Pierce Telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, Penn and Livingston observed that the average field strength declined about 50 gauss per year during Cycle 23 and now in Cycle 24. They also observed that spot temperatures have risen exactly as expected for such changes in the magnetic field. If the trend continues, the field strength will drop below the 1,500 gauss threshold and spots will largely disappear as the magnetic field is no longer strong enough to overcome convective forces on the solar surface.

Moving outward, Richard Altrock, manager of the Air Force's coronal research program at NSO's Sunspot, NM, facilities has observed a slowing of the "rush to the poles," the rapid poleward march of magnetic activity observed in the Sun's faint corona. Altrock used four decades of observations with NSO's 40-cm (16-inch) coronagraphic telescope at Sunspot.

"A key thing to understand is that those wonderful, delicate coronal features are actually powerful, robust magnetic structures rooted in the interior of the Sun," Altrock explained. "Changes we see in the corona reflect changes deep inside the Sun."

Altrock used a photometer to map iron heated to 2 million degrees C (3.6million F). Stripped of half of its electrons, it is easily concentrated by magnetism rising from the Sun. In a well-known pattern, new solar activity emerges first at about 70 degrees latitude at the start of a cycle, then towards the equator as the cycle ages. At the same time, the new magnetic fields push remnants of the older cycle as far as 85 degrees poleward.

"In cycles 21 through 23, solar maximum occurred when this rush appeared at an average latitude of 76 degrees," Altrock said. "Cycle 24 started out late and slow and may not be strong enough to create a rush to the poles, indicating we'll see a very weak solar maximum in 2013, if at all. If the rush to the poles fails to complete, this creates a tremendous dilemma for the theorists, as it would mean that Cycle 23's magnetic field will not completely disappear from the polar regions (the rush to the poles accomplishes this feat). No one knows what the Sun will do in that case."

All three of these lines of research to point to the familiar sunspot cycle shutting down for a while.

"If we are right," Hill concluded, "this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades. That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate."

There's some interesting commentary on Wattsupwiththat.

Darn. Just as I was about to offer the price of a coffee in Courchevel - €50 - a used lift pass from St.Anton and a single old ski sock...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/14/austria-suspends-sale-alpine-peaks

Ernst Eichinger, of the agency in charge of the sale, said his office had been bombarded with calls and emails ranging from "indignation to abuse", and the deal, originally set for 8 July, was suspended pending review.

Hmm, there's a shocker; Austrians wanting to keep hilly bits of Austria Austrian. Quite right.

"Best season start since 2000"

From the Sydney Morning Herald :-

Victoria's ski fields had one of their best starts to the season in years with the three major resorts reporting big crowds and plenty of snow.

At Falls Creek, spokeswoman Debbie Howie said temperatures as low as minus-7C during the past week had created excellent snow-making conditions.

...

Mt Buller recorded 30cm of natural snow and created 50cm in man-made areas as the weekend progressed.

At Mt Hotham, spokeswoman Gina Woodward said they had an amazing start on Saturday, attracting around about 1200 people over the weekend.

Three lifts ran were in operation with an average of 24cm snow depth over the mountain.

"It was our best start to the season since 2000," she said.

The trend looks to continue with more snow forecast to fall from Friday.

To read more: click here.