Hey Chip, I'm the guy to ask as I've been at Cannon since the late 70's. I've watched the crazy difference in weather conditions for many a moon. First, Cannon gets a much higher melt than most areas because of it's topography. When winter storms go to the west of the Franconia range, the south wind will blow up the notch. Because the notch rises 1000 ft and has very high walls on each side, the wind has to compress as it makes it way to Cannon. By the time it gets to the top the winds can easily be twice that of the Lincoln area. At least 3 times a season my house at Mittersill feels like the roof is about to blow off with these systems. With this wind brings much higher temps at Cannon. It's not uncomman to have a 10 degree higher temp than in Lincoln. I've seen this happen uncountable times in my 30 + years living at Cannon in the winter. Second,the terrain north of Cannon drops sharply down in elevation to Franconia and this had a big drying effect on any system. It simply does not snow as much right at Cannon vs just 3 miles south in the notch. Even nor'easters are not kind to Cannon. We actually can end up with better snowfall than other close ski areas from small Alberta clippers that come from the west. The opposite can be true also in that small disturbances will hang right over Cannon and put out snow when its not snowing at all at Loon.Yesterday was a classic example. It was snowing lightly all day at Cannon. I left to head south and there was not a cloud in site from Loon south. The notch creates it's own little micro climate that's amazed me for decades. The 2 biggest factors though in answering your question are that Cannon simply gets much bigger melts and the snow shuts down pretty dramatically right at the top of the notch.
