Around The Hoop

Move over Rover, the dog days of summer are over

There is no clearer sign that the dog days of summer are over than watching a pooch play in the snow.

A dog enjoys Aspen's snow this week.
David Amirault/Aspen Skiing Company

Such is life in Aspen, where piles of wet, white precipitation loaded rooftops, railings and the area’s ski resorts with the promise of winter. The storm swept into the city late Tuesday and by the time the local denizens awoke Wednesday, they looked out their windows and saw a sea of snow.

Then they looked at their calendars and started counting.

One, two, three … 30 days until Aspen Mountain and Snowmass open!

By the time this goes to print, there will be 29 or fewer days until Aspen’s chairlifts start cranking on Nov. 24. This was the second significant snowstorm of the 2011-2012 season, seeing as how the National Weather Service declared that the dusting in early October was the first significant one.

Many more are on the way. Thanks to what appears to be the makings of a La Niña weather pattern, which traditionally brings favorable moisture flows to Aspen’s mountains, expectations are on the rise.

“Ater a moderate La Niña (like we had last season), it’s common for water temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean to warm up a bit during summer, then cool back into a La Niña pattern the following winter. And that’s exactly what appears to be happening right now,” notes Joel Grantz, of the Colorado Powder Forecast.

Ski season is just around the corner.
Photo courtesy of David Amirault/Aspen Skiing Company

For a while there, snow was coming down in parts of Colorado at a rate of one or two inches an hour before it finally tapered off Thursday morning. The next storm isn’t expected for another week.

The good folks at the Aspen Skiing Company are already rolling out their snow guns for testing, and their man-made snowmaking efforts are anticipated to start firing on all cylinders as soon as next week.

But when nature giveth snow so freely, the demand diminishes for snow created by man.

Just ask the dogs.

This blog first appeared on Inspirato.

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