Lies and Dammed Lies

I have always wondered just how much 'marketing' goes into snow total reports from ski area websites. Now, I've got a little evidence of just how much 'embelishment' there actually is, based on the last storm cycle here in the West. I looked at website reports and SNOTEL (Gov automated sites) of select resorts to compare just how accurate the reports are. Now, some things to remember are; the storm lasted two to three days and there was some settling between rounds and the SNOTEL stake is sometimes at a different location than the resorts stake. You might need to click on the table to see it up close. Anyhow, it looks like the CO resorts are the worst offenders, UT is middle of the pack and CA is best. Note that this is an n=1. I will look at these same places through the rest of the season to see if it's a trend.