New snowfall on Rainier, Oct 2012: webcam photos!

A brief period of clear skies on Monday morning allowed a nice view of the new snowfall on Mount Rainier over the last few days. This animation of a pair of images from the Paradise Mountain webcam ( www.nps.gov/webcams-mora/mountain.jpg ) shows conditions at 10:40am on October 15 and the same time on October 11, the last day of our glorious extended Northwest summer. The lowest rock visible in the image is the bottom of Wilson Cleaver at about 8500 ft, and accumulating snowfall has occurred down to that elevation and lower:



Full size version: www.skimountaineer.com/TR/Images2012/mountain-2012Oct11+15.gif




The Camp Muir webcam ( www.nps.gov/webcams-mora/muir.jpg ) has been back online since October 4, after an outage since November 20, 2011, caused by physical damage from repeated impacts. It has been upgraded to a higher resolution (3 MP) and now updates every 10 minutes instead of hourly, since it transmits over the new higher-speed NPS link to the Muir ranger hut, instead of the slow NWAC telemetry link. As expected, the camera rapidly iced up during the storm, but the ice cleared off on its own about an hour before sunset on Monday, enough to see a few images. This animation of a pair of images shows conditions at 5:40pm on October 15 and at noon on October 11, the last clear day. Looks like the snow drifts are 3-4 ft deep in spots:



Full size version: www.skimountaineer.com/TR/Images2012/muir-2012Oct11+15.gif (which is actually reduced 50% from the original, except the timestamp which is 100% to maintain legibility)


(I made these animations just for fun, to show to a friend of mine, each took only a few minutes to create in Photoshop.)

The snow level dropped from 10000 ft overnight down to 5000 ft at Rainier this morning, and the Paradise East webcam ( www.nps.gov/webcams-mora/east.jpg ) caught the parking lot at 5400 ft fully snowcovered for a brief period, before sunbreaks and the warmth of the ground melted it away:




Here is yesterday evening's Rainier forecast for reference:

[tt]MOUNT RAINIER RECREATIONAL FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
404 PM PDT MON OCT 15 2012

SYNOPSIS...A VIGOROUS FRONT WILL BRING MORE RAIN AND WIND TONIGHT. DECREASING SHOWERS WILL FOLLOW ON TUESDAY AS AN UPPER TROUGH MOVES THROUGH. DRY WEATHER IS LIKELY WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY. ANOTHER FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH AROUND THURSDAY NIGHT WITH COOL SHOWERY WEATHER LIKELY THIS WEEKEND.

MONDAY NIGHT...ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. RAIN AND SNOW EARLY THIS EVENING...THEN SHOWERS IN THE LATE EVENING AND OVERNIGHT. BREEZY. PRECIPITATION MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES EARLY THIS EVENING. SNOW LEVEL 10000 FEET.
TUESDAY...SHOWERS...BREEZY. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 6 INCHES. SNOW LEVEL 5000 FEET.
TUESDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY IN THE EVENING...THEN MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. BREEZY. SNOW LEVEL 4500 FEET.
WEDNESDAY...PARTLY SUNNY. FREEZING LEVEL 5500 FEET.

TEMPERATURE AND WIND FORECASTS FOR SELECTED LOCATIONS.

                       MON    TUE    TUE    WED 
                     NIGHT         NIGHT       

SUMMIT   (14411 FT)      7      0     12     18
                      W 74  NW 66  NW 67  NW 47

CAMP MUIR(10188 FT)     23     13     19     26
                      W 52   W 46  NW 41  NW 23

PARADISE  (5420 FT)     35     38     29     42
                     SW 14   W 16   W 12  NW  4

LONGMIRE  (2700 FT)     41     45     34     50
                     SW 14   W 15   W 11  NW  3

++ TEMPERATURES AND WIND FOR THE SUMMIT AND CAMP MUIR ARE AVERAGE
   CONDITIONS EXPECTED IN THE FREE AIR AT THOSE ELEVATIONS.
++ TEMPERATURES FOR PARADISE AND LONGMIRE ARE THE EXPECTED HIGHS AND
   LOWS. WIND IS THE AVERAGE WIND EXPECTED DURING THAT PERIOD.

EXTENDED FORECAST...

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. FREEZING LEVEL 9000 FEET.
THURSDAY NIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 9500 FEET.
FRIDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY. BREEZY. SNOW LEVEL 7500 FEET.
FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY...SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL 4000 FEET.
SATURDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY. LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL POSSIBLE. SNOW LEVEL 4500 FEET.
SUNDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY. BREEZY. SNOW LEVEL 3000 FEET.
SUNDAY NIGHT AND MONDAY...CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL 3000 FEET.
[/tt]


The NWAC telemetry from Paradise and Camp Muir nicely shows the frontal passage and roughly 20 °F temperature drop:

[tt]10-16-2012
Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center
Paradise, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington

MM/DD  Hour  Temp    RH  Wind  Wind  Wind  Hour Total 24 Hr Total Solar
         PST     F     %   Avg   Max   Dir Prec. Prec.  Snow  Snow  W/m2
             5400' 5400' 5380' 5380' 5380' 5400' 5400' 5400' 5400' 5400'

---

10 15   900    41    94    14    21   277     0     0     2    13   116
10 15  1000    42    93    13    18   281     0     0     3    13   162
10 15  1100    43    91    16    23   280     0     0     2    10   173
10 15  1200    45    86    13    21   279     0     0     2    15   172
10 15  1300    43    88     9    18   277     0     0     3    12    65
10 15  1400    45    98     8    13   276   .14   .14     1    11    26
10 15  1500    46    99    10    18   264   .12   .26     2    12     7
10 15  1600    47    99    11    15   272   .32   .58     1    10     1
10 15  1700    47    99    14    25   269   .31   .89     1     9     2
10 15  1800    49   100    21    32   270   .36  1.25     1     3     0
10 15  1900    49   100    23    36   268   .05   1.3     1     8     0
10 15  2000    49   100    24    34   269   .03  1.33     1     5     0
10 15  2100    47   100    27    45   271   .08  1.41     1    11     0
10 15  2200    47   100    24    34   269   .05  1.46     2    10     0
10 15  2300    46   100    22    33   264   .04   1.5     3    10     0
10 16     0    44   100    25    40   272   .03  1.53     3    11     0
10 16   100    41    99    30    47   271   .03  1.56     1    12     0
10 16   200    38    99    24    40   264   .01  1.57     3    14     0
10 16   300    36    99    26    52   267    .1  1.67     3    13     0
10 16   400    33    99    37    60   273   .01  1.68     3    15     0
10 16   500    32   100    32    62   274   .01  1.69     3    11     0
10 16   600    30    95    35    57   273     0  1.69     1    13     0
10 16   700    30    99    20    34   268   .01   1.7     1    11     1
10 16   800    29    99    21    38   267   .04  1.74     1    12    30


Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center
Camp Muir, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington

Wind gages unheated and may rime

  MM/DD   Hour   Temp     RH   Wind   Wind   Wind   Wind  Solar
           PST      F      %    Min    Avg    Max    Dir   W/m2
               10110' 10110' 10110' 10110' 10110' 10110' 10110'

---

  10 15    900     29     65      0      0      0    226    402
  10 15   1000     28     68      0      0      0    249    469
  10 15   1100     27     62      0      0      0    267    395
  10 15   1200     29     73      0      0      0    268    256
  10 15   1300     30    100      0      0      0    268     86
  10 15   1400     32    100      0      0      0    263     59
  10 15   1500     32    100      0      0      0    244     23
  10 15   1600     33    100      0      0      0    226     11
  10 15   1700     34    100      0      0      0    239      9
  10 15   1800     35    100      0      0      0    230      1
  10 15   1900     34    100      0     70    101    240      0
  10 15   2000     32    100     42     73    100    247      0
  10 15   2100     31    100     42     74     94    248      0
  10 15   2200     30    100     37     64     90    244      0
  10 15   2300     29    100     21     37     56    253      0
  10 16      0     29    100     20     31     43    253      0
  10 16    100     24    100     19     32     45    253      0
  10 16    200     22    100     13     23     33    253      0
  10 16    300     21     99      4     17     26    253      0
  10 16    400     16     98      9     20     30    253      0
  10 16    500     15     97      4     21     30    253      0
  10 16    600     12     96     12     20     26    253      0
  10 16    700     13     97      3     13     21    253     11
  10 16    800     12     95      0      5     18    253    103
[/tt]

You coming tomorrow amar?

whats up with the anomalous 24-hour snow totals at Paradise starting on about the 12th. looking at the past 10-day telemetry for Paradise, 24-hr snow totals range from 1-4 inches with no consistency. The corresponding temps are way to warm for that to be snow obviously so its some kind of glitch I suppose.

Also just noticed the total snow, which is definitely not accurate as there is no accumulation or even left over snow from last year that low.

Ullr and Amar deliver!

Even this late in the morning, Tahoma's not the only peak with webcam snow:

You coming tomorrow amar?

Still trying to figure out my ski plans for Wednesday.

whats up with the anomalous 24-hour snow totals at Paradise starting on about the 12th. looking at the past 10-day telemetry for Paradise, 24-hr snow totals range from 1-4 inches with no consistency. The corresponding temps are way to warm for that to be snow obviously so its some kind of glitch I suppose.

Also just noticed the total snow, which is definitely not accurate as there is no accumulation or even left over snow from last year that low.

The total snowdepth gauge (a downward-looking ultrasonic distance sensor, mounted on an arm atop a 20-30 ft tower) generally reads bushes at most telemetry sites during early season. A quick glance through www.nwac.us/data/ALL shows that most sites have non-zero snowdepth readings, some up to 1-2 ft, even though none currently have snowpack. Sometimes in years past, some NWAC site data files have even had a message added stating that "Total snow sensor may measure bushes in early season".

The 24-hour gauge is a similar sensor mounted on a 4-ft post attached to a movable board, which must be manually cleared of snow. So depending on where that gauge has been left sitting, some other loose debris or plant material may have fallen on the board, giving the randomly varying false "depth" readings.