MOUNT LEMMON, Ariz (KGUN9-TV) - Our warm weather's probably looking pretty good to people freezing up North right now. But it's shutting down some of the fun on Mount Lemmon.
Thick snow and cold weather kept Ski Valley open and busy. But now it's so warm on the mountain, skiing there will have to stop until nature brings in enough new snow.
It has been a great winter for Ski Valley up here but now, it has just been so warm, the snow is getting so thin they're going to have to take a break from skiing for a while."
Monday it was so warm on Mount Lemmon at least one skier was skiing in a T-shirt. That's not a good sign for how much snow---and skiing time you have left.
But Javid Corral and his dad have had three good days here.
He says, "I guarantee everyone should come here because it's a very nice place."
Javid is from Mesa so he’s a good example of the type of Arizona skier who comes to Ski Valley. It's the southernmost ski area in the U.S.
El Nino's been good to Ski Valley this year, with about five and a half weeks of good snow but with cold, snowy weather taking a break, Graham Davies of Ski Valley says skiing has to take a break too.
"It's been good and busy but it's finally that time. We're getting some thin spots.”
KGUN9 reporter Craig Smith asked: “How do you decide then that time has arrived?”
Davies said, “When you cruise around and you can tell, there's spots and it's hard to get around. You can just tell when the snow gets really, really soft."
Even though the snow's a little too thin for skiing, or it will be soon you can still come out to Ski Valley and enjoy a ride on the chair lift and in fact, you can do that all summer long.
With the weather as weird as it's been there's still plenty of hope for a new, nice thick coat of snow at Ski Valley. They're still talking about El Nino of 2010 when the snow lasted so long they were still skiing on April 20th.
