Skiershop.com

Steven Boisvert

While most of us North of the equator sun-bathe or sweat profusely merely sitting in traffic (true ski-bums don’t have working AC) there is that little winter fairy twinkling in the back of our minds like the powder from January’s first genuine dump holding with her summer’s nagging anticipation about the ski season to come; will snow pound down in feet or trickle in inches? Or not at all? While summertime fun in the sun is the general concensus of what ‘good’ weather is; anyone reading this knows differently and aptly appreciates the bitter cold stuff that shuts down municipalities and sends many sane organisms south for the winter.

Not us. We’re risking life and limb racing to the mountains in feverish powerslides (see, now the AC doesn’t matter anyway) to get fresh tracks. And right now, this August, some of us are enjoying waist deep powder. Those of us willing to travel down under, that is.

This is currently the middle of the season for New Zealand, Australia, and South America and New Zealand is enjoying extremely agreeable weather with plenty of sun punctuated by healthy doses of white stuff with South America also enjoying an early start to the season. But what does this matter unless you can secure a passport and funds to travel below the equator?

Plenty. When the last 100 years of seasonal snowfall for South America, and New Zealand are compared to the following North American snowfall totals, there is an overwhelmingly positive correlation between what happens down there, and what ends up happening up here the following season. The correlation gets even stronger when the time lines are reduced to 1950-2010. In other words, their winter seems to predict ours.

Now before we get into debating details, lets just set the context here; I want it to snow, alot this season, so bear that in mind. Australia has been left out of the picture initially because of less correlation and proximity, but was pushed over the edge by what seems to be a rather bleak 2010 season thus far. It seemed ‘scientifically’ sound to nix Australia since there was nearly zero correlation between their winter and ours given the same time lines.

South America and New Zealand’s early 2009 start mirrored North America’s early 2009/2010 season that saw the Northeast getting a ton of early-season snow. New Zealand had plenty of records broken for their 2009 winter season with extremely early snowfall followed by the warmest August ever recorded, followed by the snowiest and coldest September since the 1950′s. Our record-breaking followed suit with the 2009/2010 United States’ season that shattered more records for overall snowfall in recorded history.

Now we look at what is happening right now in NZ and SA and that little fairy starts buzzing around in the back of my head and now I am following their winter season like a thirsty mosquito. So far, the outlook is promising with mountain access so harsh that tire chains are required for many areas. We can only hope we need snowmobiles to get to the mountains this season. If my highly accurate data is correct, we should be in for a doosie.