While winter may still seem a long way off for those of us languishing in the UK, the US resorts around Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain are already enjoying their first snow fall of the season.

Mammoth mountain received a generous dump of about 8 inches of fresh, which means that the powers that be in the resort may be considering opening early for the season. Click here to watch a video showing the new snow.

According to the Los Angeles Times, meteorological experts are predicting that moderate El Nino conditions will characterise the 2009-10 winter on the west coast of the USA. If previous El Nino winters are anything to go by, this could mean awesome amounts of snow being dumped on US resorts.

Keep an eye out for early resort openings, and let’s hope we get another winter as good as last year’s!