Worst Wintertime Pineapple Express in 50 Years?

Amar & Gary- Thanks for the additional info.! <br><br>30" of rain in 10 days at Baker! ??? now that's a lot of rain! (nearly the amount of Seattle's average YEARLY rainfall total!)<br><br>--Chris<br><br><br>

It looks like the weak layers are probably pretty well ironed out of the snowpack. (I'll still call it that, even if it's only for sentimental reasons.) <br> <br> Snow level is probably down to 7k, hooray! <br> <br> It's not gonna rain as huge as it might have today. <br> <br> Snow level looks to drop early next week, and hopefully neither too drastically nor too quickly. <br> <br> This all sounds very good to me. <br> <br> As much as some comments in this and another threads seem to ascribe some kind of unbelievable power or responsibility to my wishes for the big hosedown, I'm rather pleased with the way things have developed. I managed to get rid of some weak layers in my data analysis, too. So instead of being careful about my wishes, I think I'll be grateful that they might come true.

It looks like the weak layers are probably pretty well ironed out of the snowpack. (I'll still call it that, even if it's only for sentimental reasons.)

<br><br>Ironed? That's not how I would iron anything, Sky. I think the word you're looking for may be "washed", as in washed out of the snowpack just before the snowpack itself washed away.<br><br>I'm optimistic about future snowfall too, but it's clearly going to get much worse over the weekend and next week before it gets any better. The upcoming Pineapple Express looks strong, and models still call for high freezing levels the next 6-7 days. There are hints of a major shift in weather patterns in the 8-14 day outlooks, back to a much colder northwesterly flow, but this may again aim too far south and bring another huge snowfall bonanza to Shasta, Lassen, and the Sierra. It's way too early to tell right now, though.<br>

An article in Time Mag implicates this PE is due to MJO, not El Nino. "Madden-Julian Oscillation is a globe-girdling disturbance that sweeps across equatorial waters at intervals of 30-60 days, says NOAA climatologist Wayne Higgins". Has me puzzled!!<br>DB

With all that rain and more rain on the way, might as well just wish for a total loss of all snow below 5k and have a fresh start to an allready Pinappley express liquid snow season.

<br> This all sounds very good to me. <br>

<br><br>I can't say I'm too excited... in the end I think it means less skiing this winter, because much of the time weather dictates you'll be skiing not the big lines, but below treeline - except there won't be any snow for that. The spring season will be shorter. Besides, there's a lot of things I'd like to do that require a good low elevation snowpack...<br>I suppose it has cleared roads for access again - assuming there are no washouts <br><br>If it was all snow... 10 inches -&gt; 10 ten feet... those instabilities might not be so much of an issue anymore either?<br><br>Plus I wanted to force myself to get more resort days in this year &gt; &gt;<br><br>"removing the instablities" is about the only good thing this rain has done - the rest is just sad....<br><br>hopefully the mountain gods are listening to me bitch, and will reward us appropriately