Weather hype's a big snow job

Credit: Mountain Scene

OPINION: I'll admit I've got a bit of an interesting obsession.

It manifests itself as the leaves begin to colour and the temperatures cool, becoming full blown as the army of snow guns roar into life on The Peak.

It can wane like my interest in rugby after the mighty Stags conclude their ITM Cup campaign or peskily stick around for summer like low-riding, pants-wearing snow chasers.

It's a bit weird I guess and probably somewhat of a surprise to those who know me more as an over-opinionated marketer, but it's something I've had as long as I can remember.

It's not dangerous as far I'm aware nor illegal, however it can be irksome to the odd person and lead to me getting heated over exaggerated media reports and frustrated with certain websites and others in the community who buy into the hype.

It's weather, and while I'm no David Crow, I will admit I love a bit of backyard forecasting, tend to remember significant weather events with an OCD level of detail and train-spottingly kept a weather diary as a young fella.

At university I even studied climatology as a main focus in my science degree, something I kept in the closet as I studied commerce publicly.

There was once even talk of doing some research, following on from my basic studies, into changes in seasonal snow accumulation and its implications for our ski industry.

That was jettisoned for actual skiing and putting the marketing segments of my education to use.

So finally getting to my point, what really grinds my gears is each winter hearing media, and many of our so-called experts and armchair weather commentators, referring to snowfall events as historically significant more often than the council puts back roading infrastructure improvements.

Since wintering in the Wakatipu I've seen and heard this line referenced to more snowfalls than I can count on my Southland issue set of 12 fingers and 12 toes, so many that if I cobbled all the clips together they would form a mountain perfectly capable of being skied on.

A quick google search revealed the almost yearly occurrence of storms being "record setting", "the big snow" or "the largest ever"!

Recently of note our May snowfall this year. This apparently was the biggest snowfall Arrowtown's had in 30 years and the basin's biggest May snowfall event in living memory.

Short memories some people have. What about May 23, 1988, or overnight on July 2, 1999, when Coronet Peak received about 1.2m at the base lodge?

Those are just a few big events I remember, both larger than the recent snowfall.

These all pale into insignificance when the oldies get going and people recount the snows of 1939 and the like.

I love a good snowfall and putting down a few ski tracks afterwards, but let's keep things in perspective people, otherwise we all sound a bit like Mark 'Chopper' Read, never letting the truth get in the way of a good yarn.

Mark writes a regular column for the Mountain Scene - View the original  HERE