Happy Vernal Equinox Dendrites!

Friday March 20, 2026

Happy Vernal Equinox Dendrites!

Just as the sun was right over the equator and winter turned into spring at 10:46 am today, it started snowing here again at Jay Peak Resort. And it's snowing hard!

We have another overachiever on our hands. When I wrote the Tuesday blog, we were looking at maybe a few inches altogether by this weekend. Now we’re looking at double digits for the weekend. Double digit snowfall that is!

Not only that, it’s 'good base material'. Especially in lower elevations where we have a thinned out snow pack thanks to the last couple of warm-ups. Now we have this dense snow that is filling in the nooks and crannies. Snow should become more powdery as the weekend goes on.

The Big Picture Pattern;

The temperature in Arizona hit 110° on Thursday. At the same time around Hudson Bay Canada it’s 30° below zero. We have a 140° temperature gradient in North America. And there’s one after another low pressure systems coming in off the Pacific. One of those atmospheric rivers. And mother nature has her sights set on northern Vermont for a series of early springtime snowfalls.

The boundary between the warm and the cold is so close that it’s a tough call on what the temperature is going to do here. But I think it’s cold enough that most of the events are going to be all snow. Timing each event is also very challenging. As I’m writing, we have moderate to heavy snow falling, just a couple of hours after the Vernal equinox early Friday afternoon.

Word from the mountain is that even before this snow was that Thursday night snow was also an overachiever. Much like it started way back in October. We have some of the most robust snowfall, if not in the lower 48 United States, then all of North America, as we launch into springtime 2026 - With a major spring in our step!

This first batch of snow coming down occasionally 1 to 2 inches per hour lets up after the last chair. Probably around 7 or 8 o’clock. So that means we get several inches of snow after lift served skiing ends, saving it for Saturday morning fresh powder skiing. Low pressure is going to be exiting via eastern Maine with snowfall becoming intermittent and light perhaps stopping altogether by early Saturday morning, leaving about 7 inches of moderate density snow, more powdery up top.

The temperature starts off near 20° rising to about 32° in the afternoon for our Saturday with wind out of the northwest at about 10 to 15 mph. It’d be tough to ask for much better than that.

Unless that’s not enough snow for you.

Then how about we bring some more in on Sunday.

Another wave of low pressure is going to be racing in Saturday night with another wall of snow coming in before the first chair Sunday. It should be snowing again close to an inch and hour for much of Sunday. And once again it's fairly dense snow. So the driest snow on Sunday will be in the morning. We'll probably have about 2or 3 inches on the ground by the first chair, then it snows most of the day with the temperature rising from the 20s into the lower 30s. So it may get sticky in the afternoon.

It’s another wave of low pressure on the front. After that wave goes by the wind comes back in from the north Sunday afternoon and night, and it keeps on snowing. Probably just a few more inches of snow by Monday morning. So if we add up the Sunday and Monday, probably another 8 inches of snow, on top of the Friday-Saturday 7 inches. Monday morning should be powdery, especially with some elevation.

The battle between warm and cold shifts well to our south Monday. It may snow on Boston!

We’re going to have high pressure from near the north pole coming in Monday night with a low temperature near 10° on Tuesday morning. Snow will probably shut off a little bit there. But then the front lifts back to the north mid week with more snow likely later Tuesday into Wednesday.

There’s a chance of very strong low pressure system tracking to our north on Thursday. If that happens then we see a wintry mix. Maybe a change to rain before changing back to snow late Thursday. We’re getting way out there now. There is potential (50/50) if that can stay all snow, we get another double digit snowfall before next weekend.

If it does warm up Thursday it’s a brief period during the afternoon. Either way there'll be more snow on the frontside and backside. The set up is for the last weekend of March looking a lot like how we looked back in early December... With snow on snow on snow.

We have to feel for many of the resorts out west with all this record heat having to shut down early. That does not bring joy. But what does bring joy ~ is the fact that anybody who wants to can travel here to the northeast kingdom of Vemont and keep winter skiing and riding going ~ in March Madness style.

It looks like we have to put our Tommy Bahama ski wear back in the closet for another week or two anyway. We’ll have the daylight lasting longer. But mud season is on hold for another week anyway. It’s really astounding how much this forecast has changed. It brings great joy to write this one up.

Hopefully, I’ll be writing the next post from right here at the resort on Tuesday morning. I’ll be booking my reservations, hope to see you on the slopes!

Thank you Mother Nature for all you do, and you too mountain operations teams, and everyone around here, keeping the pedal to the metal.

Happy first weekend of spring time.

TK