Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to got snow?

No wonder, you're smack dab right in the middle of the Rocky Mountain foothills
SDF — (archived)

Denver, CO - elevation = 5200 ft.

At that elevation your average temperatures will be about 20 degrees Fahrenheit lower than at sea level. All that snow is normal. Now consider where I am:

Toronto, ON - elevation = 250 ft.

Not a flake of snow in weeks. The Niagara Escarpment which runs northwest from its namesake up to the Bruce Penninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay provides a bit of elevation and a decent view to anyone lucky enough to own property on it. But it's not that much, and the top of Blue Mountain Ski Resort only reaches and elevation of:

Blue Mountain, ON - elevation = 1475 ft.

Only a few degrees difference on average. But most importantly in this region, the lake effect precipitation is significant. There may not be a flake of snow in Toronto, but Blue Mountain, and especially Wiarton (home of Wiarton Willy of Groundhog Day fame) a little further to the north, may get dumped with a 6-12 inches of the white stuff.

So, in Denver it would take something momentous to mitigate the elevation-induced temperature drop, and assocated snowfall. But in Blue Mountain it is really the lake effect snow that they count on to run their business. Maybe Lake Huron warmed up more this summer. Or very likely all the precipitation we had earlier in the fall made the lake turn over inverting the temperature gradient underwater and preventing the usual evaporation in winter. I bet the fishing sucks too. Not necessarily caused by global warming. Alot of rainfall does alot of damage everywhere. Floods and such. Cancelled baseball games. Etc.

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