Mount Rainier Paradise reaches 200" snow depth

It looks to me as though the area around Kyes Peak/Cadet Glacier is the big winner this year (although obviously not a weather station). There is so much snow Cadet Glacier can't even be spotted. The snow in this region looks far deeper than even Mt. Baker and environs.

Don't forget about little old Mt. Washington, Vancouver Island, BC. Currently reporting 652cm's or 257" base.

Looks like Crystal, Paradise and Timberline all hit seasonal snowpack highs today (Aptril 15). 241 inches at Paradise - nice!

Should be able to bump up those seasonal records at many locations the next few days.....

The continued snowfall since then will ensure that the April 15 CLISNO looks much more favorable when it comes out.

Here's the actual CLISNO data for April 15, belatedly posted for posterity, and looking much fatter than the April 1 numbers:
[tt]
CLIMATOLOGICAL SNOWDEPTH INFORMATION
NORTHWEST WEATHER AND AVALANCHE CENTER SEATTLE WASHINGTON
DAY  15  MONTH  4  YEAR  2011

DATA IN INCHES, -99 DENOTES MISSING DATA

            CURRENT  CLIMATE  PER CENT   LAST  THRU 2010  THRU 2010
            DEPTH    AVERAGE  OF NORMAL  YEAR  MAX/YEAR   MIN/YEAR

HURRICANE   177      109      162        111   252/1999    51/2005
MT BAKER    253      167      151        184   290/1999    56/1934
STEVENS     125       93      134         86   170/1956    17/1941
SNOQUALMIE  100       72      139         56   153/1974     0/1992
STAMPEDE    111       98      113         68   216/1964     9/1992
MISSION      57       45      127         51    79/1983    21/1990
CRYSTAL     112       73      153         86   130/1999    30/1981
PARADISE    240      172      140        163   302/1972    68/1934
WHITE PASS   80       45      177         53    95/1997     0/1992
TIMBERLINE  203      164      124        163   300/1999    71/1977
MEADOWS     157      127      124        131   194/2008    54/2005
[/tt]


Numerous sites did reach new snowdepth maxima on the 15th, primarily in the region from Rainier south to Hood, and these same locations are likely to be reaching new seasonal maxima this week. In fact, Timberline has just reached a new maximum of 208" in the last hour (exceeding its prior mark of 206" set later in the day on April 15), as has Crystal Green Valley with 162" (had been 159" on April 15). The Crystal base area and Mt Hood Meadows are each now within 1" of their April 15 maxima, so they may pass those later today, or by Thursday with the next incoming storm.

The final CLISNO update on May 1 is likely to be very high as a percent of normal, coming out just after this week's major cold storms.

Revisiting the original topic of this thread: Mount Rainier Paradise remains several inches below its 240+" seasonal maximum of April 15 as of today. However, it did pass the 800" mark for snowfall on April 14, and was up to 838" as of yesterday according to the park's phone message today. With 13" more of new snow today (see the official daily NPS measurements for Paradise for the last month ), that would put it at about 851" for the season, the 10th highest seasonal snowfall on record at Paradise in 84 years of snowfall data.

With the next storm likely to dump another 2-3 ft on Wednesday-Thursday, and given its average snowfall of 23" in May and 6" in June, it is very likely that Paradise will break the 900" mark this season, something which it has done only 7 times before (last time was 947" in 2007-. That was my pre-season prediction, that Paradise would break 900" this year, based on its average snowfall in strong La Niña years of 915". A prediction that looked to be highly erroneous by the time mid-February rolled around and the snowfall total was still hovering near 450", but now looking much closer to the mark.