Mount Rainier Paradise reaches 200" snow depth

So much for 1990 :'( Although the avalanche observations are correct.

Kenny from NWAC says that he added up snowfall records from January 18th to February 17th of that year by combining both WDOT and ski area reports (since each was missing some data). A possibly slightly overstated total for that period was still an impressive 285" (so I don't know where I got the earlier number of nearly 500"). But not to despair, so far this month Baker has had 227" with 105" in the past 7 days - our first 100" week in a long while

Where are you getting the monthly snowfall numbers for Baker? I don't see any seasonal or monthly snowfall totals on their website (except outdated info at www.mtbaker.us/1011/ski-area-info/snowfall-statistics/ ), I wish they would post current numbers each day. If I add up the NWAC telemetry, I get about 176" for March and 101" for the last 7 days (including today's 14") -- a pretty great week and half-month:
[tt]
        24 Hr  Total
Date     New   Depth

---

Feb 26    0"   153"
Feb 27   12"   159"
Feb 28   14"   168"
Mar  1   10"   172"
Mar  2    8"   174"
Mar  3    4"   181" -- error in 24 hour, should be about 9-10" new
Mar  4    9"   183"
Mar  5   13"   189"
Mar  6    2"   185"
Mar  7    1"   182"
Mar  8    6"   183"
Mar  9   12"   191"
Mar 10   10"   197"
Mar 11   15"   207"
Mar 12   16"   219"
Mar 13   13"   220"
Mar 14   14"   227"
Mar 15   10"   230"
Mar 16   19"   245"
Mar 17   14"   250" -- reached 253" overnight before settlement
[/tt]

The biggest one day total was at Crystal about 10-15 years ago with 65". My sister was riding the lifts that day and said that "They all looked like they were stuck on flypaper." Nobody was going anywhere. Ken confirmed that snowfall; as he said he was forecasting that day and they still don't know how that happened.

The 65" snowfall at Crystal was on Thursday, February 24, 1994 -- Paradise received 44" new that day (misrecorded in the NCDC archives as being on the 23rd), while Longmire (2700 ft) got 25" new and Government Camp (4000 ft on Mt Hood) got 25" too, which was the 3rd or 4th greatest one-day snowfall at each of those three sites.

Here are a couple of NWS technical papers about the event and its possible cause:

www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/97TAs/TA9712/ta97-12.html
www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/techMemos/254/TechMemo_NWS_WR-254.pdf

That 65" snowfall was partly responsible for me moving out to Seattle -- it made national news and I heard about it on the east coast, as I was trying to decide which grad school to attend for my physics PhD. I had gotten admitted to 4 schools out of the 13 I had applied to, including the UW (barely a top-15 physics program at the time) and three other schools on the east coast (Yale, Johns Hopkins, Duke), all of which were more prestigious and higher ranked than the UW in physics. I picked the UW sight-unseen (I'd never been to WA or Seattle) over the east coast schools after hearing about the 65" snowfall, because I knew that I wanted to move someplace with real mountains and big snowfall. Choosing the UW and moving to Seattle remains the single best decision I've ever made in my life (my mom disagrees, she nearly went apoplectic at my decision, and still can not believe that I chose the UW over Yale).

During my first winter skiing Crystal in 1994-95, that 65" dump was still fresh in a lot of people's minds, and I heard a lot of chairlift stories from those who claimed to have been there that day. I've still never seen any actual photos of the day, though . . .

Where are you getting the monthly snowfall numbers for Baker? I don't see any seasonal or monthly snowfall totals on their website (except outdated info at www.mtbaker.us/1011/ski-area-info/snowfall-statistics/ ), I wish they would post current numbers each day. If I add up the NWAC telemetry, I get about 176" for March and 101" for the last 7 days (including today's 14") -- a pretty great week and half-month:

I got those snowfall totals from Kenny by phone. He said that while he had little confidence in the accuracy of some of the old records, he felt pretty comfortable with today's (modern era) data. I just took his word for it, I didn't try to double-check what he told me.

More good snow news!! I noticed today that the snowdepth on Mt Shasta had suddenly reached 200" after a massive 4-foot dump, and decided to check the numbers at a bunch of other sites. It turns out that several more telemetry sites in the Cascade Range and nearby have exceeded the 200" snowdepth mark in the past few days:

The Upper Squamish River BCRFC site at 4500 ft on a ridge west of Mt Cayley (a Cascade volcano about 15 miles west of Whistler) topped 200" on March 10, then reached 239" on March 16, and now has 228". This site often has snowdepths within a few % of Mt Baker Ski Area (as it does now), and it receives about 50% more snowfall than Whistler Mountain's 5400 ft measurement plot, 20 miles to the east. Incidentally, Whistler's snowdepth reached 156" on March 16, which is 150% of normal and which it has only exceeded in two other seasons (1974 and 1999) since records begin in 1972. Whistler now has 533" of snowfall on the season, its 2nd highest total as of late March behind only 1998-99, and so this makes it back-to-back huge seasons for southwestern BC and Whistler. The 588" of snowfall in 2009-10 was its 2nd highest total ever, but is almost certain to be exceeded this season.

As per previous posts in this thread, Mt Baker Ski Area (4200 ft) topped 200" on March 10, then reached 253" on March 16 (over 150% of normal), and now has about 235", which is the most of any telemetry site in North America as far as I know. The ski area is not posting snowfall stats this season, but it must be over 650" by now. A depth of 273" is reported by Baker Ski Area atop Pan Dome at 5000 ft, however, the deepest base reported by any ski area in North America is at Mt Washington on Vancouver Island, with 281" now at their mid-mountain site (about 4500 ft) and which passed 200" way back on February 17, just as this month-long cycle of heavy snowfall in the Northwest began.

Brown Top SNOTEL (5830 ft, on the long ridge extending east from Mt Redoubt in the North Cascades) reached 202" on March 16-17, and now has 188" after some settlement.
Easy Pass SNOTEL (5270 ft, 8 miles east of Mt Shuksan) has no working snowdepth sensor, but its snow-water equivalent is now over 90", implying a snowdepth of over 220", perhaps near 240".
Buckinghorse SNOTEL (4870 ft, in the Olympics, 12 miles SE of Mt Olympus) has apparently had its snowdepth sensor (mounted much too low) buried by the rising snowpack, and so is stuck reading only 196" since March 10. But its snow-water equivalent is now over 80", implying a snowdepth of over 200", perhaps near 220".
Cayuse Pass SNOTEL (5240 ft, near the hairpin turn on SR 410 above Cayuse Pass) reached 202" on March 16, and now has 196".

And Paradise continues to hover near and above 200" for the past 9 days since March 10, with continuing new snowfall just offsetting the ongoing settlement of the snowpack. Snowfall for the season-to-date is reported at 658" as of this morning, with a depth of 208" on the NPS snow stake and 201" on the NWAC telemetry.

Over 400 miles to the south, on Mt Shasta the Old Ski Bowl site (7600 ft) topped 200" today (March 19), which is over 160% of normal. Nearly 4 ft of snow has fallen in the last 2 days -- plus another 2-3 ft of snow are expected in the next 2 days. It's great to have a long spring and early-summer ski season already ensured on Shasta, where the snowpack is so variable from year to year.

Lassen Peak, Lake Helen (8250 ft), topped 200" on March 16, and now has over 227", about 130% of normal. More than 2 ft of snow has fallen in the last 2 days -- plus another 3-4 ft of snow are expected in the next 2 days. If that snowfall occurs as forecast, Lassen's snowdepth will easily pass the Baker Ski Area site.

The maximum snowdepth at any site in Oregon remains Mt Hood Timberline Lodge (6000 ft) with almost 170" now, about 105% of normal. The Crater Lake Rim site (7050 ft) had 153" on March 17, but has been down since then. No other telemetry sites in Oregon are over 140", and sites in WA and northern CA are doing much better than Oregon as a percent of normal, but in general the Oregon Cascades are now at or above normal snowdepth. Timberline is reporting seasonal snowfall of 520", while Mount Bachelor is reporting 490" and Crater Lake has received 480" at park headquarters (6400 ft).


Overall for the Cascade Range, this now qualifies as a great snow season, and it's the first season since 2005-2006 to be above-normal for snowfall and snowdepth over the entire length of the range (700+ miles) from southwestern BC to northern California. It has definitely not been a typical La Nina season, except for the last month since mid-February which has looked like a classic La Nina-influenced weather pattern. The snowpack will likely continue building somewhat for the next month, until mid-April. There should be a lot of great route options for spring and summer skiing throughout the entire range this year.

Smoley Hokes! And it's not just the Cascades; there are great snow depths extending all the way south to Mt. Whitney with 136% to 181% of normal when I last checked a few days ago. Mammoth reports a pretty doggone good 167" at the base, 200" at mid-mountain and a whopping 260" at the top, with a trifling 55"new. Mammoth has had over 500" of snowfall this winter according to Howard Sheckter. I suspect some of the Tahoe areas are equally well-endowed - to borrow a term.

The fire hose has been washing the entire west coast at different times with a pretty good dousing of H2O.

You know when I first skied Whistler in 1968 we were told (it was written on a chalkboard) that the mountain had 33' of base. I doubted that could be true; still, there were a bunch of buildings on the flats below the Roundhouse and all that was showing of them were the chimneys/vent pipes sticking directly out of the snow?

Lassen Peak, Lake Helen (8250 ft), topped 200" on March 16, and now has over 227", about 130% of normal. More than 2 ft of snow has fallen in the last 2 days -- plus another 3-4 ft of snow are expected in the next 2 days. If that snowfall occurs as forecast, Lassen's snowdepth will easily pass the Baker Ski Area site.

As expected, the continued heavy snowfall in California the past few days has sent Lassen Peak into the lead, passing Baker Ski Area overnight and reaching 239" of snowdepth early this morning, now the most of any telemetry site in North America. Mt Shasta Old Ski Bowl is up to 207".

Quite unusually for a La Nina season, the Sierra Nevada has had a huge snow year, although as is typical down there, much of the snowfall has come in isolated dumps of 5-15 ft per storm cycle, separated by long periods (weeks or even over a month) of sunshine and no snowfall. Another such storm cycle is underway this week as the storm track has shifted south of the Pacific Northwest, with 3-5 ft already fallen in the last 2 days and up to 6 ft of additional snowfall forecast for the Sierra over the next 5 days. A couple of telemetry sites in the Sierra have now topped 200":

The Meadow Lake CCSS site (7200 ft, north of I-80 and Lake Tahoe) reached 197" on March 17, leveled off for a day, and with renewed snowfall appears to have reached 229" last night, although the data has been very flaky and intermittent -- it's hard to tell the correct data from the spurious data (e.g. the 276" values).
Leavitt Lake SNOTEL (9600 ft, west of Bridgeport, well south of Lake Tahoe) topped 200" on March 18, and now has 218" (the 317" values are spurious).

These are normally the two highest-snowdepth telemetry sites in the Sierra Nevada, although they each average about 25-30% less snowdepth than the Lassen Peak, Lake Helen site which has the largest average snowdepth in California.

The Mammoth Ski Patrol's telemetry site at 9000 ft has 175" (see patrol.mammothmountain.com/ for lots of nice snowpack info and other stuff, including their Avalanche Path Atlas ), while the nearby Mammoth Pass USBR site (9300 ft) has 174" as of this morning. The ski area is reporting 499" of snowfall for the season as of this morning -- so it's over 500" now for sure. The average annual snowfall at Mammoth (main lodge, 8900 ft) since 1969 is about 380", so it's already over 130% of normal snowfall with lots more snow on the way.

As for the Tahoe ski areas, the largest snowdepths and snowfall totals according the ski areas themselves (take with a large grain of salt -- no telemetry sites near the ski areas come close to these numbers):
Sugar Bowl has gotten 46-64" new the last 2 days, and now reports a 287" snowdepth at its summit -- no seasonal snowfall totals though.
Squaw Valley has gotten 38-48" new the last 2 days with a 190" upper snowdepth, and a snowfall of 570" at 8200 ft according to their Snowfall Tracker 2010-11 .
Alpine Meadows has gotten 39-54" new the last 2 days, and now reports a 297" snowdepth at its summit -- no seasonal snowfall totals though. It's also "Closed - Too much snow to safely enjoy. (Extreme Avalanche Danger and High Winds)".
Sierra at Tahoe has gotten 19-45" new the last 2 days, and now reports a 208" snowdepth at its summit -- no seasonal snowfall totals though.

Kirkwood has gotten 56-62" new the last 2 days, and now reports a 198-247" snowdepth, with seasonal snowfall of 607-621". However, Kirkwood's snowfall and snowdepth numbers are the most suspect of any ski area that I've tracked, they often just don't add up (literally). There was an obvious instance of double-counting daily snowfall totals during the huge late-December 2010 storm cycle, which remained uncorrected later, and their base depths often mysteriously stay constant for days or weeks after a storm -- while those of all other nearby ski areas are shrinking as they must due to settlement. Unfortunately, Kirkwood's numbers are for entertainment purposes only and are nearly useless scientifically, which is a shame since they probably get the most snowfall of any CA ski area (about 470" on average, roughly the same as Sugar Bowl).

Amar,

Thanks for the latest snow data of the Tahoe and Eastern Sierra. Jill and I usually spend March, April and early May in The Sierra.  With both of our recent surgeries,  we're unfortunately missing it.  During recent years, we get Kirkwood season passes because of their deep snowpack and terrain.  I'm hoping the storm cycles keep rolling thru and buiding the bases for an extended spring/summer season.  I just might be able to be back on skis by mid June.