curious about NW snow season history

Amar Andalkar has selflessly done mucho impressive climatological research on Cascade snowdepth and snowfall. His highly useful and interesting data goldmine can be seen here:<br> www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeSnow.html

He even has a new page on El Niño and La Niña:
www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeSnowENSO.html

I like his optimism, "An important conclusion from all of this data is to largely refute a common misconception about El Niño in the Pacific Northwest. There is a general belief, even a deep-seated fear, among Northwest skiers that El Niño seasons are always disastrous for snowfall in the Cascades. The perception arose because El Niño tends to produce warmer than normal temperatures which result in more frequent winter rainfall in the Cascades, especially at lower elevations such as the ski areas in the Cascade passes of WA and OR. Although this may be so, El Niño seasons typically do have adequate precipitation and thus also adequate snowfall, especially at higher elevations which are most important for ski mountaineering."

I'm sure Andalkar will come and comment on this thread himself. In the meantime checkout the above links.


FWIW, I've skied every week for the past 8 weeks. Yesterday was the first time I didn't hit any rocks.

...and here are Lowell's notes on Chester Marler. This guy's tours really fascinate me. Anyway, I remember there is a note on general weather trends by Marler, as told by Lowell:<br><br> www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/ms/marler-2002.html

These low-snow years are not on everyone's wish list but really, they do make for the easiest long-distance tours, especially dog-assisted.

This site contains graphics of monthly accumulation at several points in Washington's Cascades. The period covered seems to be mid 80's to late 90's.<br><br> www.nichols.edu/departments/glacier/snow...ons_in_the_north.htm

1948/49 was the worst for snow followed by the 1976/77 season with 1980/81 close behind. I have been keeping a list of the snowfall history gathered mostly from DOT information.<br><br> hyak.net/snowfallhist.html

The 1976/77 season put an end (maybe not totally, but was a bit influence in the demise of) Satus Pass, Mt Pilchuck and sent Hyak into Bankruptcy.........

I've been keeping a history through pictures of the Snoqualmie area since 1998 so you can compare the snapshot in time from year to year....

www.hyak.net/cam/

great info and good stories

Check this plot of the Cascade mtns. precipitation trends out.<br> www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/divplot1.pl

It seems the period from about 1920 to 1940 was much drier.