In MT, arctic temps, but where's the snow?

By this time last year I had logged at least four or five days on the mountain. My local hill near Helena, MT, known as "The Rock" by the locals who have lived through the lean, dry years on this side of the Divide, had a generous two foot base covering most of the mountain and fresh powd blowing in nearly every day in December. By January we were skiing 6"-12" of fresh powd at least two or three days a week. Sure, it's no Snowbird, but if you talked to the locals who had been skiing there for decades, they agreed it was one of the best snow years in memory.

What a difference a year can make:

We are fast approaching Christmas and by my calculations we've had ten straight days of bitter cold with hardly any snow...anywhere. I wake up each morning so cold I can see my breath. I've got snotsickles on my mustache. Like a modern-day Bob Cratchet, I pluck away at my keyboard each morning with my yellowish-blue digits poking through fingerless, woolen gloves as try to check the forecast each morning, hoping and praying for a warm, moist air mass to come rolling out of the Pacific and slam the region with a winter storm the likes of which we've never seen.

Alas, all I see is more cold. More dry, powderless cold.

It's not just the Rock either. Big Sky's reporting a 25"-35" inch base. Montana Snowbowl has a measly 16"-33". At Big Mountain, er...I mean Whitefish Mountain Resort...it's the same thing, 16"-33". I guess there's finally a good reason to be near Billings because Red Lodge Mountain Resort boasts the best snow in the state with 39"-47". Current conditions are packed powder, however.

I don't know about you guys but all I'm asking for this Christmas is POWD. I don't want an iPhone, or heated socks, or a new Playstation 3, or even new boards. I just want snow. Lots of it. And I want it now.

Santa may not disappoint. This, the latest from NOAA:

SUNDAY INTO MONDAY...ANOTHER MOIST PACIFIC LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL APPROACH THE REGION WITH SNOW LIKELY ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE AREA.