Atop Mount Washington on Sunday, temperatures felt like May, not midwinter, said meteorologist Tim Markle.
It was so warm that New England’s tallest peak shattered its 1938 record of 33 degrees, posting a high of 42.
“Our current snow cover and temperature conditions on Mount Washington mirror what we would normally expect around May 15,” Markle, a Mount Washington Observatory meteorologist, stated in a press release Monday.
He said that for this time of the year, temperatures have been averaging 32 degrees, instead of the usual 5 degrees above zero.
That unseasonable warmth also affected ski areas across western Maine.
Sunday River Ski Area, which was to make snow this past weekend, didn’t.
“The temperatures kind of went north on us,” spokeswoman Susan DuPlessis said Monday afternoon. “We were totally caught off guard by the warm temperatures.”
The good news, she said, was that the midwinter heat had softened hard-packed and icy snow, creating springlike conditions.
The Newry resort has, to date, received 68 inches of natural snow, most of which fell in December. The ski area averages 155 inches of natural snow for its season total.
“It’s not all gloom and doom, we don’t think,” DuPlessis said, expecting more snowfall this month and in March.
To date, the ski area has made enough snow to cover 1,700 acres a foot deep and have 120 of 128 trails open.
“Those eight (that are not open) are our most gnarly glades. They’re not open, because we need natural snow for them,” she said.
Likewise, said Bill Swain, of Sugarloaf/USA’s glades. As of Monday, the Carrabassett Valley ski area had 104 of 133 trails open, according to its Web site.
“All of our snow-making trails are open, but we need some more snow, especially on the steeper ones, on which the snow gets pushed to the bottom,” Swain said.
The warm temperatures haven’t been detrimental to the resort, except to snow-making.
“We had beautiful weather this weekend. It brought a lot of people out, but we have not made snow for the last week or so. We’re riding out what we’ve got, and it’s been fine,” Swain said.
So far, he said, Sugarloaf has received 4 feet of natural snow, which is 4 feet less than the same time last year, when the resort boasted 8 feet.
Like DuPlessis, Swain said he believes the snowfall is “right on track” for the season, because March is the resort’s snowiest month, followed by February.
Efforts to contact other ski areas Monday were unsuccessful.
But, according to their Web sites, Saddleback in Rangeley reported having 38 of its 44 trails open, Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford reported having 12 of 20 runs open, and Mount Abram in Greenwood reported 38 of 44 trails open.
The Greenwood resort, which has received 29 inches of natural snow, also posted a temperature of 50 degrees at 1:54 p.m., and springlike skiing conditions.
According to the National Weather Service in Gray, temperatures are expected to return to normal for the month by the end of the week. More snow is also on the way, up to 10 inches by Thursday, DuPlessis said.
Comments are no longer available on this story