{"id":1872886,"date":"2026-04-08T22:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1872886"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:00:35","slug":"report-card-how-the-farmers-almanac-2025-26-winter-forecast-held-up-for-skiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1872886","title":{"rendered":"Report Card: How the Farmers\u2019 Almanac 2025-26 Winter Forecast Held Up for Skiers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Credit: Farmer\u2019s Almanac<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Farmers\u2019 Almanac was much better east of the Mississippi than it was in the western mountains in 2025-26.<\/strong> Its \u201cChill, Snow, Repeat\u201d theme lined up well with the Midwest and Northeast, but California, the Pacific Northwest, and much of the Rockies were defined by warmth, high snow lines, and long dry stretches. For skiers, that is the difference between a solid forecast and a miss.<\/p>\n

California: C-<\/h2>\n
CA SWE as of April 7. Credit: NRCS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Farmers put California in its wet, near-average Southwest bucket.<\/strong> That captured only part of the season. Tahoe and Mammoth did get a few real reloads over Christmas, in early January, and again in late February. Skiers, though, needed cold storms and durable base-building, and California rarely had that. November opened with rain up around 9,000 feet, late February brought rain to 10,000 feet, and by April 1 the statewide snowpack had crashed to just 18 percent of average, with no measurable snow at Phillips Station. Early April resort numbers told the same story: Mammoth sat at 72 percent of normal snowfall, Palisades 70 percent, and Heavenly 51 percent. Farmers saw moisture, but did not see how little of that moisture would actually ski like winter.<\/p>\n

Pacific Northwest: D<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Washington SWE as of April 7. Credit: NRCS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

The Pacific Northwest forecast missed.<\/strong> Farmers called for a cold Northwest, especially Idaho and Washington, plus impressive snowfall in the mountains. What actually showed up was a season of high snow lines, rain events, and a base that never really caught up, especially in Oregon. Washington\u2019s statewide snowpack was only 53 percent of median on April 1 and likely peaked two weeks early. Oregon hit record-low statewide snowpack in early February, and the ski season reflected it: Mt. Hood Meadows finished at 53 percent of normal snowfall, and Mt. Bachelor at 43 percent (with Bachelor Summit open just one day all winter). Washington did get a big March reset and Mt. Baker still reached 417 inches, but this was nowhere close to the cold, powdery season the map advertised.<\/p>\n

Rockies: D-<\/h2>\n
CO SWE as of April 7. Credit: NRCS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rockies call was even harder to defend.<\/strong> Farmers painted the region as very cold and snowy. The U.S. Rockies spent much of the winter in snow drought instead. The Northwest\/Northern Rockies and Plains had their second-warmest winter on record, while the West and Southwest set warmth records. By early April, resort stats were brutal for a flagship Rockies season: Alta was at 55 percent of normal snowfall, Park City 45 percent, Breckenridge 44 percent, Vail 49 percent, Winter Park 59 percent, and Jackson Hole 60 percent. The northern fringe of the region had a few better stretches, and parts of Canada were clearly stronger, but for the core U.S. Rockies ski belt this was a miss.<\/p>\n

Midwest: A<\/h2>\n

This is where Farmers looked sharp.<\/strong> The Almanac called for a classic winter wonderland across the Great Lakes and North Central states, and for Midwest skiers that is basically what happened. Lake-effect belts fired at times, including up to 20 inches in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana in mid-January, and a mid-March blizzard dropped 10 to 20-plus inches across parts of Wisconsin, the U.P., and northern Lower Michigan. Mount Bohemia ended up at 360 inches and was still spinning weekends into May, while Lutsen carried 84 inches and planned operations into early May. For skiers chasing turns around the Great Lakes, Farmers was largely right.<\/p>\n

Northwest: A<\/h2>\n

The Northeast was another strong call.<\/strong> Farmers forecast frequent snowstorms in New England and a cold, snow-filled region, and that is close to how the season played out from the Greens to the Adirondacks. The Northeast was fairly cold and snowy while much of the rest of the country ran warm, and late February delivered a major blizzard from the Mid-Atlantic to New England. Northern mountain resorts backed that up. By early April, Jay Peak was at 124 percent of normal snowfall, Stowe 116 percent, Whiteface 135 percent, and Cannon 131 percent. Jay Peak\u2019s official season total reached 400 inches. A late-season thaw cost some terrain, but the broad forecast worked for ski country.<\/p>\n

Overall: C+<\/h2>\n

Add it all up and Farmers\u2019 Almanac lands at a C+.<\/strong> The East earned real credit. The West dragged the grade down. California at least caught the wet signal, but the Pacific Northwest and Rockies forecasts missed the warmth, rain, and snow drought that defined the season for skiers. It read the eastern half of the map well. It never got close to capturing the winter the western mountains actually had.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit: Farmer\u2019s Almanac Farmers\u2019 Almanac was much better east of the Mississippi than it was in the western mountains in 2025-26. Its \u201cChill, Snow, Repeat\u201d theme lined up well with the Midwest and Northeast, but California, the Pacific Northwest, and much of the Rockies were defined by warmth, high snow lines, and long dry stretches. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,267],"class_list":["post-1872886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-snowbrains-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1872886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1872886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1872886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1872886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}