Who broke the calendar?

Two weekends of perfect weather in a row. Temperatures in the 70s. Freezing levels above 10,000 feet. What happened to May and June? This feels like early July.<br><br>Oh well, enjoy it while you can. I skied along the North Cascade highway Friday and found wonderful corn snow. The forecast is calling for more "normal" weather next week. A good thing, I guess. Otherwise it's going to be an awfully short spring skiing season ...<br>

Here in Los Alamos there are flakes coming down and an inch of snow on the ground. Go figure.

I, too, have been reveling in the great weekend weather while lamenting its consequences on our summer snow pack... <br>You know, it's that "mixed emotion" thing -- kinda like watching your mother-in-law driving over a cliff in your new Corvette <br>Looks like it may have turned tho, maybe we'll get a bit more snow yet, to help out.

I have a question for those in the know. What melts the snopack more, hot sunny weather, or rain? On our volcano trip last June, Amar said something about hot weather melting 4 inches a day. I suppose if it rains it is cooler by nature and by this time the snowpack has channels for the water to flow through. Maybe rain has more of an effect on the early/mid season snowpack?

Alpentalcorey. <br><br>Those were my same thoughts when I read this thread.<br><br>The fastest I've ever seen snow melt was at my house.<br>The Christmas storm in '95. Sixteen inches on the ground. The wind changed to southerly. No rain. No sun. Breezy and warm. Like the snow evaporated. Almost visibly.<br><br>But I did remark to myself yesterday about how high the rivers were for being a no-rain melting event.

I have a question for those in the know.  What melts the snopack more, hot sunny weather, or rain?

<br><br>Didn't the native Americans call a Chinook wind a "snow eater" or something like that? (A bit of brain sludge from who-knows-where.) So Wickstad might be onto something, perhaps a warm wind with low humidity can melt snow fastest of all.<br><br>Between sun and rain, I'd vote for sun, but that's just a guess. Some years ago, in July, my brothers and I left our tents on the Challenger Glacier and went to climb Mt Fury. When we returned after a long sunny day, our tents were perched on pedestals about a foot high. That was the most dramatic snow melt/settlement event I've ever observed

This has certainly been a concern of mine, since I mostly get out during the spring and summer!<br><br>An odd year, with normal snow fall early on. But it has been soooo dry for over the last month or more.<br><br>What gets me is a normal year sees the deep snow pack developing along with the occasional though regular delivery of the pineapple express. This, I believe melts and consolidates (strenthens) the snowpack, but since the snow is usually so deep the "sponge" effect means that it also adds mass to the snow pack. I fear that our snowpack this year is somewhat starved for moisture and will be particularly sensitive to even normal spring and summer conditions, let alone the record warmth and dryness.<br><br>In my first trip out last week, I was amazed at how loose the underlayers of snow were. On a very warm sunny day, just under the crust and slush, was just an unconsolidated dry sugar pile! Can't translate that to everywhere, but it seems like we could have used a good soaking sometime back in late Feb. and March.<br><br>This also worries me about snowpack stability during the coming weeks and on. Odd that we have been having pretty stable weather the last 2-3 weeks, but that at Steven's there was an avalanche this weekend that was triggered by a falling lump of snow. This sent considerable snow into motion.<br><br>Alan

I'm wondering about our snowpack stability too. I'd imagine east-south-west slopes have probably gone through their spring slide cycle, but what about north facing slopes, especially those at higher elevation? Has the sun been high enough to really bake those yet?<br><br>Two weeks ago, Mar 29, set the all-time record high for the entire month of March at SeaTac, 78 degrees (previous high was 75). Saturday tied a record high, and Sunday shattered one. I wonder if this spring/summer will outpace last summer's warmth and dryness.

Lowell and everyone else:<br>I think the real question here is, "Who broke the planet?" ???<br>Although it's a difficult pill to swallow, I am really starting to believe that the planet is getting hotter. Whether this is caused by humans and industrialization or if it is a result of normal climatic variation, I don't think we can conclusively say. Of course I'd like to think it is a result of normal climate swings...<br><br>I've heard several scientific types say that skiing as we know it in North America and Europe is headed for crisis in the next 50 years or so...<br><br>Whatever...I think we'll still have those EPIC seasons and we'll still have the years where no real snow falls until January.<br><br>Either way, this is going to be an interesting summer. Get out there and appreciate the snow and glaciers before they're gone!

Some scientists say that we'll get a mini ice age due to global warming. ??? ;D ??? You can't argue with the data, temps are rising, but the cause, as you say, is nowhere near understood. Either way, I wish it would be cold and snowy right snow. &gt;

I hate to be the messenger of bad news, but global warming is real, it is here, and we (humans) are the cause. There is little uncertainty about this, the only uncertainty is about exactly how much warming we will get, and how it will be distributed around the globe.<br><br>There's more bad news: warming will be most pronounced over land and in the northern latitudes in winter (polar amplification). Not so good if you like to ski at Snoqualmie Pass.<br><br>Unless we really give the Earth a kick, or changes are more extreme or rapid than our worst fears, it's unlikely we'll go into a mini-ice age (thermohaline circulation shutdown).<br><br>read all about it until you want to puke: IPCC reports You probably want the policy maker summaries (SPM). The technical summaries (TS) are recommended if you are really curious.