upslope

September 21, 2026 New England rain event — forecast vs. what fell

event hit rate 100% MAE 0.17″ 32 mountains scored

On September 21, 2026, 30 of 32 scored New England ski resorts recorded measurable rain, peaking at 0.73″ near Berkshire East. upslope’s day-before forecasts verified at a 100% event hit rate with a mean absolute error of 0.17″ across 32 mountains. Ground truth: median of CoCoRaHS volunteer gauges near each resort (min 2 reporting).

Mountain by mountain

Resort Forecast Measured Error Call
Berkshire EastMA0.36″0.73″-0.37″✓
Bretton WoodsNH0.14″0.54″-0.4″✓
Pats PeakNH0.21″0.48″-0.27″✓
RaggedNH0.17″0.48″-0.31″✓
Sunday RiverME0.1″0.47″-0.37″✓
Black MountainNH0.14″0.46″-0.32″✓
LoonNH0.17″0.46″-0.29″✓
Magic MountainVT0.3″0.46″-0.16″✓
Mount SunapeeNH0.19″0.46″-0.27″✓
WildcatNH0.16″0.46″-0.3″✓
GunstockNH0.2″0.45″-0.25″✓
Waterville ValleyNH0.19″0.44″-0.25″✓
AttitashNH0.14″0.43″-0.29″✓
CranmoreNH0.12″0.43″-0.31″✓
WachusettMA0.33″0.43″-0.1″✓
CrotchedNH0.2″0.42″-0.22″✓
OkemoVT0.2″0.42″-0.22″✓
BromleyVT0.4″0.4″0.0″✓
StrattonVT0.35″0.4″-0.05″✓
CannonNH0.17″0.38″-0.21″✓
Mount SnowVT0.3″0.38″-0.08″✓
SugarbushVT0.26″0.3″-0.04″✓
KillingtonVT0.23″0.28″-0.05″✓
PicoVT0.24″0.28″-0.04″✓
Mad River GlenVT0.24″0.27″-0.03″✓
Bolton ValleyVT0.22″0.21″+0.01″✓
BurkeVT0.13″0.15″-0.02″✓
Jay PeakVT0.11″0.15″-0.04″✓
StoweVT0.18″0.15″+0.03″✓
Smugglers' NotchVT0.17″0.13″+0.04″✓
SaddlebackME0.07″0.09″-0.02″✓
SugarloafME0.05″0.09″-0.04″✓

Scoring fix, Oct 8, 2026: earlier versions compared each gauge report (7am-to-7am) against the forecast for the wrong calendar day; all history was rescored under the corrected rule.

Forecast = upslope's NWS-based rain forecast for the same 7am-to-7am window the gauges measure, from the last run before that window opened. ✓ = correctly called rain above/below 0.1″. Positive error = over-forecast.