STOP IT!  Yes, you!

Stop thinking about calling in sick this morning and heading off to the nearest ski slopes.  Wait until tomorrow.  The snow will be better this weekend.  Honest.

At least, that’s what the guys at the ski resorts want you to believe.  A study just released by Dartmouth reveals that ski resorts consistently report greater snowfall on Saturdays and Sundays than on weekdays.  Could this be true?  To find out, the study compared resort-reported conditions to government weather data.  And what was uncovered was a blizzard of lies.  Across the industry, resorts overstate their recent snowfall depth by an average of 23% on weekends, the days most critical to their success.  Moreover, resorts that are within easy driving distance of major metropolitan areas – that have the most to gain by a fib – tend to inflate their numbers more than remote resorts.  And can you guess who are the most grievous offenders?  Resorts that don’t offer a money-back guarantee. Nice.

Thankfully, the research also uncovered a new wrinkle in snow-reporting that’s working in skiers’ favor.  Snowfall can vary wildly from area to area, even from mountain to mountain, and the only way to truly gauge local snowfall is to go take a look.  That hasn’t been feasible before.  But now, with cell phones and twitter, folks who are on the mountain or who live and work nearby can broadcast actual snow conditions as they happen.  And it’s keeping the resorts honest.  While the Dartmouth research was taking place, iPhone released an application that allows users to instantly report conditions on the ground.  Immediately following the app’s release, the number of overstated snowfall reports fell significantly.  And they fell differently at different ski resorts:  those resorts with good iPhone signals were more truthful about snowfall than those with poor iPhone signals.  Imagine that.  Snow jobs, meet Steve Jobs.

So OK, forget what we said at the beginning. Check your iPhone. If today’s a powder day, by all means blow off work. Go have a good time. But be warned: that technology can make for a great day playing hooky, but your boss can call you on it.