It’s November, which means it’s that time of year again were Arizonans get to
enjoy the comfort of not getting surprised with a burning singe from their seat belts or steering wheels upon getting in their cars on a hot day.
With the first half of 2016 officially being the hottest consecutive six months recorded so
far, according to NASA, it’s been a slow cool down from summer for Arizona.
While 2015 is still currently the recorded hottest year yet, according to NASA as 2016
comes to an end, it seems as if it could very well beat or equal 2015’s set record.
As the temperatures gradually get colder because of this year’s record heat temperatures,
winter seasonal recreational activity fanatics are preparing to either settle with the hope of a
better winter next year or make arrangements to head further north than they usually do for
snow.
Regular ski resort attendee, Jon Cline, resident of Tempe, said, “At this point, I can’t say it
is impacting the season, but I am definitely not planning any sort of ski trip until I see how the snow fall is in Mammoth, Snowbowl and Telluride.”
Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort in Flagstaff, Arizona, is located on the Western slope of
Mount Humphreys, one of the most prominent peaks of the San Francisco Peaks. This ski resort is one of Arizona’s most frequented ski resorts by residents throughout Arizona.
Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort on the East side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in
Eastern California and Telluride Ski Resort located in the Southern San Juan Mountains in
Southeast Colorado are some of the nation’s most renowned ski resorts partly because of their steady snowfall.
“The beginning of the season in Flagstaff is going to determine if I go ride in December,”
Cline said. “I hope the snow sticks on the mountain.”
Winter sport adrenaline junkies aren’t the only ones anticipating for winter to come
sooner.
A bartender at the Phoenix Public Market in Downtown Phoenix, Serena Fonze, resident
of Tempe, said winter is the service industry’s most profitable time of year and with it being
warmer later in the year than usual, this year’s season so far isn’t doing her well, financially.
Fonze also enjoys snowboarding in the winter and says that she hasn’t been able to enjoy
the snowboarding season as much as she used to in previous years.
According to a global analysis done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, March of 2016 is the warmest recorded March since record keeping started in 1880.
Just a day before the record-breaking temperatures in March 2016, Ryan De Valle,
resident of Tempe, drove to the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort on Feb. 29 to snowboard.
“The snow was super slushy,” De Valle said. “The whole mountain was blanketed in
snow, but all that was left was on the slopes and in between the trees.”
“It was all barren, the snow left on the slopes was dirty and obviously thinning,” De Valle
said. “Even by the lower lodge, there were little streams of runoff from melting snow. Some
areas were even coned off because there were visible rocks on the trail.”
Regardless of how much snow has fallen this season so far, people are still increasingly
preparing to head out to the slopes.
Julian Richardson, store manager at Ski Pro in Mesa, a local ski supply store, said that he
has not noticed a decrease in sales for ski and snowboard equipment so far this season. However, Richardson said that sales could be affected because of the closing of Ski Pro’s competitor Sports Authority.
For those patiently waiting for that perfect day of fresh powder to come, daily snow
reports are offered online on Ski Pro’s website for ski resorts in Arizona and out of state.