Mount Rainier Paradise reaches 200" snow depth

Looks like Paradise won a narrow, come-from-behind victory this morning over Mount Baker Ski Area in the race to be the first telemetry site in the Cascades to reach 200" of snow depth this season:
[tt]
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
             5550' 5550' 5500' 5500' 5500' 5550' 5550' 5550' 5550' 5500'

---

   3 9  1500    33   100    21    31   272   .04   .09     5   187   115
   3 9  1600    33   100    18    24   271   .06   .15     5   187    63
   3 9  1700    33   100    14    22   267   .06   .21     5   187    26
   3 9  1800    33   100    13    20   265   .04   .25     4   186    10
   3 9  1900    33   100    12    18   267   .05    .3     6   186     0
   3 9  2000    33   100     8    14   275     0    .3     5   187     0
   3 9  2100    33   100     4    10   301   .06   .36     7   186     0
   3 9  2200    33   100    10    18   295   .08   .44     7   187     0
   3 9  2300    33   100    12    19   289   .12   .56     8   190     0
  3 10     0    32   100    16    27   283   .11   .67    10   192     0
  3 10   100    32   100    17    28   280   .06   .73    10   194     0
  3 10   200    32   100    14    23   275   .11   .84    11   194     0
  3 10   300    32   100    12    18   277   .12   .96    12   197     0
  3 10   400    32   100    14    23   275   .11  1.07    14   199     0
  3 10   500    31   100    16    24   271   .09  1.16    14   201     0
  3 10   600    28   100    18    28   271    .1  1.26    17   202     0
  3 10   700    27   100    24    36   277   .06  1.32    19   203     1
  3 10   800    27   100    16    25   279   .03  1.35    19   203    21
  3 10   900    28   100    13    21   263   .05   1.4    19   203    71
  3 10  1000    30    99    14    22   273   .01  1.41    19   202   143
  3 10  1100    31    99    17    26   273     0  1.41    19   201   314
  3 10  1200    32    98    19    28   275     0  1.41     1   196   462
  3 10  1300    30    99    15    26   263     0  1.41     1   196   368
  3 10  1400    29   100    21    36   271   .02  1.34     1   195   240
  3 10  1500    28   100    20    33   263   .05  1.33     1   196    86
  3 10  1600    27   100    23    40   269   .05  1.38     2   196    65


Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center
Mt Baker Ski Area, Washington

Wind sensors unheated and may rime
Precip gage appears to be under-recording 2-27-2011

MM/DD  Hour  Temp  Temp    RH    RH  Wind  Wind  Wind  Wind  Hour Total 24 Hr Total
         PST     F     F     %     %   Min   Avg   Max   Dir Prec. Prec.  Snow  Snow
             5000' 4210' 5000' 4210' 5000' 5000' 5000' 5000' 4210' 4210' 4210' 4210'

---

   3 9  1500    31    33   100   100    11    19    34   249  0.11  0.26     1   190
   3 9  1600    31    33   100   100    11    21    31   190  0.10  0.36     1   191
   3 9  1700    30    33   100   100    13    24    42   193  0.08  0.44     2   192
   3 9  1800    30    33   100   100     5    21    40   202  0.05  0.49     2   192
   3 9  1900    30    33   100   100    12    27    51   181  0.10  0.59     2   191
   3 9  2000    29    33   100   100     8    22    44   252  0.05  0.64     3   192
   3 9  2100    29    32   100   100     4    10    24   149  0.02  0.66     3   192
   3 9  2200    29    32   100   100     1    10    20   188  0.01  0.67     3   192
   3 9  2300    28    32   100    98     1     5    15   111  0.00  0.67     3   192
  3 10     0    28    31   100   100     0     5    15   155  0.13  0.80     4   191
  3 10   100    28    31   100   100     3    14    31   175  0.11  0.91     7   194
  3 10   200    29    32   100   100    12    23    32   195  0.07  0.98     7   194
  3 10   300    29    32   100   100    18    27    37   168  0.08  1.06     8   195
  3 10   400    29    32   100   100    20    36    55   176  0.10  1.16     9   195
  3 10   500    29    32   100   100    11    35    58   195  0.06  1.22     9   196
  3 10   600    28    31   100   100    12    26    49   218  0.07  1.29    10   197
  3 10   700    27    30   100   100    16    35    64   153  0.02  1.31     1   198
  3 10   800    27    31   100   100    16    34    49   186  0.03  1.34     1   198
  3 10   900    28    31   100   100     9    28    44   187  0.03  1.37     1   198
  3 10  1000    28    31   100   100    16    31    44   184  0.05  1.42     2   198
  3 10  1100    28    31   100   100     6    22    37   178  0.06  1.48     2   198
  3 10  1200    29    32   100    99    14    30    49   192  0.06  1.54     3   199
  3 10  1300    28    32   100    98    11    26    51   225  0.03  1.57     3   199
  3 10  1400    29    32   100    98     8    27    52   236  0.14  1.45     3   199
  3 10  1500    28    31   100    99     3    16    38   181  0.05  1.40     4   199
  3 10  1600    28    31   100   100     6    18    39   227  0.08  1.48     5   200
[/tt]

Although Baker has now reached 200" also, and retaken the lead after settlement at Paradise pushed it back under 200" . . .

One of 5 sites is usually the seasonal snowdepth leader for the Cascade Range: either Paradise, Chinook Pass, Baker Ski Area, Timberline Lodge, or Lassen Peak. The Chinook Pass site often has depths that match or slightly exceed Paradise, but it has been out of phone/radio communication since November 20, 2010 (it was also offline all of last season from November 21, 2009 to July 14, 2010 -- hard to keep that site in touch). Timberline Lodge is far behind this year at about 150", while Lassen Peak is close, reaching 184" on March 7.

Since weather record-keeping began at Paradise in 1916, the snow depth has reached 200" at some point during nearly half of the 92 seasons with data, most recently in 2008. The median seasonal maximum is 197", with the maximum depth typically reached on March 31. Only about 1/5 of the seasons (18) has the Paradise snow depth reached 240", while only 3 seasons have broken 300", most recently in 1972. The maximum snow depth at Paradise of 367" was on March 10, 1956. The lowest seasonal maximum was a paltry 95" on April 15, 2005 -- the only season where the depth has not reached 100" at Paradise.

The road up to Paradise remained closed to the public all day though, so the 200" celebration party must have been a lonely one. Some webcam images of snow plowing operations today at Paradise:







[size=small](Edited to add photos and last 2 hours of data.)[/size]

Wow, 367 inches in '56 is a ton of snow. That's over 30 feet! Cool. Bet that was a great spring season.

What's the highest recorded seasonal snow depth ever recorded anywhere?

per Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow

The world record for the highest seasonal total snowfall was measured in the United States at Mount Baker Ski Area, outside of the town Bellingham, Washington during the 1998–1999 season. Mount Baker received 2,896 cm (1,140 in) of snow, thus surpassing the previous record holder, Mount Rainier, Washington, which during the 1971–1972 season received 2,850 cm (1,120 in) of snow.

Edit: just noticed the "in the United States" part...thought this was "anywhere".

...but what did Baker's record snowfall equate to as actual snowpack on the ground?

The greatest seasonal snow depth ever measured at an official weather station is 466" (1182 cm) near the summit of Mount Ibuki , a 4500 ft mountain near the west coast of Honshu in Japan, on February 14, 1927.



The North American record for seasonal snow depth is 451" at Tamarack, CA, at 6900 ft along Hwy 4 west of Ebbets Pass in the Sierra Nevada, on March 11, 1911. During January of that year, 390" of snowfall was recorded, which is a world record for a single calendar month (Paradise received 363" during January 1925, the biggest month in the Cascades).

A great book with fairly accurate info about snowfall and snow depth records is Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book by Christopher Burt (accurate info is very hard to find on this subject, with much erroneous info in most sources). You can read parts of the book on Google Books, see chapter 3 for snow info . He also writes an interesting blog on Wunderground, Weather Historian .

...but what did Baker's record snowfall equate to as actual snowpack on the ground?

The maximum snowdepth at Baker Ski Area during the world "record" snowfall season of 1998-99 was 318" on March 30, 1999. I put "record" in quotes because the 1140" during the 1998-99 season is only a record for a single season (July 1-June 30 in the northern hemisphere). The maximum snowfall during any one-year period is still held by Paradise, with 1224" from February 19, 1971 to February 18, 1972. However, that is not an official record recognized by the National Climate Extremes Committee.

I remember when Regine & I made a trip to Paradise (prob. 1999) and the walls around the parking lot were shear and more than 15 ft high, and the snow was up to the dormer windows on the Inn. Once we scaled the walls we didn't go very far, because on our then fat (now skinny) telemark skis, we just wallowed in the deep powder; also remember one season when the upper road had so much snow that it seemed cornices would bridge the road.