STimes: Possible record-setting bad snow year

Surprised nobody has posted about this yet...

Interesting article in the Seattle Times today:

seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025656599_nosnowxml.html

It’s a bad snow year in the NW; possibly record-setting bad

Snowfall in the mountains is at record low levels, and forecasts for the rest of the season don’t offer much hope. Some skiers and resort operators are trying to remain optimistic, while others are looking ahead to better times next year.

---

The gist of the article is that, if Snoqualmie Pass doesn't get almost 10 feet of snow before the end of May, it will break the 1976-77 record for the lowest seasonal snow total on record. The following graphic is most interesting:



Of course, if you read the article, you'll learn that in 1976-77, the snowfall total at this point in the year was even worse than this year. But apparently we got a lot of late snow that year, and there's no guarantee that will happen again.

Surprised nobody has posted about this yet...

Interesting article in the Seattle Times today:

I'm surprised that you're jumping on this bandwagon of despair too, Lowell. I think it's a terrible and overblown article, full of distortions and hyperbole -- see below.

But it seems like I may be the only one left soon trying to set the facts straight, and also holding out hope for this season. I am determined to have another great ski season (last year was really outstanding for me), and it is very likely that the Cascades will once again be able to provide me with adequate snowpack to do that, throughout the rest of winter, spring, and most of the summer too. Hopefully others will choose to join that bandwagon, not the one of despair, and will not give up all hope for this ski season.

Articles like this one that just feed people's already way-too-negative (mis)perceptions of this season do nothing good for anyone, especially for the ski industry and more importantly the SKI COMMUNITY of which we are all part. A fair and balanced approach would be much more helpful than all this extreme negativity and overblown hyperbole.

Of course, if you read the article, you'll learn that in 1976-77, the snowfall total at this point in the year was even worse than this year. But apparently we got a lot of late snow that year, and there's no guarantee that will happen again.

That crucial info (44" till now in 1976-77, 147" after now) is nowhere to be found in the text of article, not in the "Originally published February 8, 2015 at 7:27 PM" version, nor in the current "Page modified February 9, 2015 at 4:57 PM" version. It is in that graphic which you copied above, but I never even saw that graphic on my first 2 readings of the article this morning, since it is well-hidden as image #4 of 5 in the sidebar. I'm sure many other readers also did not click through all the sidebar graphics either.

I wrote an email to the author Erik Lacitis before noon today, it is copied below (in the email I included some personal background info about myself and my qualifications regarding snow climatology, which I've deleted from this otherwise exact quote):

Just writing to you about some major errors and distortions in your article seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025656599_nosnowxml.html published yesterday.

Frankly, by the numbers, this season is nowhere near record lows for snowpack or snowfall as of now at almost any site in the Northwest -- and in order to end up at record lows, this year would actually have to get MUCH WORSE than it has been! This year is well below-normal, but other years (including 2005 and 1977) have been much worse up to this point. Your article quotes a number of percentages from the February 1 NWAC Climatological Snowdepth Report, but fails to mention that the current snowdepths are all far above the record lows shown in the same report. Why not state that fact, why intentionally hide it? This year could possibly end up at record lows, but it is statistically unlikely to do so given how far above record lows it is as of now.

Using your article's example of 1976-77 at Snoqualmie Pass, the snowdepth on 01Feb1977 was only 8" and decreased to 4" by 15Feb1977, while this year Snoqualmie had 27" on 01Feb2015 and still 26" as of today. Obviously far better this year. Your article states that snowfall has only been 74" so far this year, and 1976-77 had 191" for the season, but it fails to mention that 1976-77 had only 44" as of now. Why leave that critical fact out?? Your statement that "Snoqualmie would need a phenomenal 117 more inches of snow to stay out of the record book" is totally misleading and wrong, since the AVERAGE snowfall from now though the end of the season at Snoqualmie is about 150", and even in the record-low 1976-77 season, they got 147" after this point. So clearly, 117" more would NOT be "phenomenal" at all, but would actually be well below-normal snowfall for the rest of the year. How did you come up with the idea that 117" more after this point would be "phenomenal"? Just made it up?

And by the way, the real record-low annual snowfall for Snoqualmie Pass is 172" in 1941-42, although I realize that older data is not included on the WSDOT website. However, that data is available from the National Climatic Data Center and also the Western Regional Climate Center websites. So Snoqualmie only needs 98" more to "stay out of the record book", and statistically, it has better than an 80% chance of getting that much more the rest of the season. It might not, but it is very likely that it will.

The Jim Whittaker quotes ("I was born in Seattle, been here all my life. I can’t recall it being as bare as it is now ...") are just absurd, obviously he did not go to Snoqualmie Pass in February 1977, otherwise he would have seen it MUCH more bare than now. Clearly, 4-8" like February 1977 is much much less snow and much more bare ground than 26" like now. Did you ask him if he had been to Snoqualmie Pass during February 1977? Not that he would remember anyway . . . human memory is well known to be one of the most fallible and least reliable sources of evidence or testimony for any particular investigation.

Why not just stick to reporting the facts, instead of making up hyperbolic and erroneous statements like your "phenomenal" one? Yes, this season may be bad, even really bad, but don't distort things in order to make it seem even worse than it actually is. As it stands now, your article is full of distortions and even outright falsification regarding the 1976-77 numbers. Perhaps you should consider revising it and posting a correction?

In light of the text contained in the graphic, my words regarding "outright falsification" may be a bit too harsh, but they are quite reasonable based on what is actually in the text of the article, especially since the article omits any mention of the much lower 1977 snowdepths compared to this year. I have received no response yet from the reporter.

I'm surprised that you're jumping on this bandwagon of despair too, Lowell. I think it's a terrible and overblown article, full of distortions and hyperbole -- see below.

Did I say anything about despair? I said the article was interesting.

We backcountry skiers may get plenty of skiing in this winter, spring and summer.  But for the audience for whom the article was written--lift skiers--despair is a reasonable emotion at this point.

If you had received the print version of the paper like I did, you'd have seen the key graphic right on the front page of The Times. The key fact about 1976-77 getting 44 inches of snow from October to January was right there on Page A1. Not misleading, in my view.

The article focuses on Snoqualmie Pass, the closest and most popular ski center for the readers of this newspaper. For those readers, a discussion of conditions at Snoqualmie is more relevant and meaningful than any statistics you might compile for other parts of the range. Snoqualmie is the reality that these readers experience. Is it misleading to focus on that?

The key question, of course, is what will happen during the rest of the winter? Let's hope we see a break in the current pattern. Cliff Mass, for one, is not optimistic. On Saturday, he wrote:

cliffmass.blogspot.com/2015/02/is-winter-over.html

But let me be clear, I am not optimistic for the remainder of this year and virtually every tool at my disposal suggests that the preternatural warmth will continue.

I am determined to have another great ski season (last year was really outstanding for me), and it is very likely that the Cascades will once again be able to provide me with adequate snowpack to do that, throughout the rest of winter, spring, and most of the summer too.

Amar given some of some the unfavorable projections looking forward what makes you say this will ultimately be a great season? i ask as someone looking for any reason to stay positive on the rest on the ski year.

Just noticed something very fishy in the article right now:

Although the reporter has not yet taken my suggestion to consider revising it and posting a correction, some crucial edits have been made! Most notably, the very first word of the article has changed! It originally started with "Snowpack in the mountains is at record low levels," and that was still the version as of this morning, but obviously the current "Page modified February 9, 2015 at 4:57 PM" version has been changed to start with "Snowfall in the mountains is at record low levels"!! That's a big (and sneaky) change, because at least snowfall thus far at Snoqualmie Pass is somewhere in the same ballpark as the record low (although 74" is still almost 70% more than the 44" in 1976-77), while snowpack (i.e current snowdepth) is nowhere near the record lows at all, it's about 400% greater now than on the same date in 1977.

So that sneaky first-word change does bring the article closer to the actual facts, although much more revision and tone-modification would still be needed in order to bring it anywhere near the realm of balanced and objective journalism. So I'm curious, what is the first word of the printed version?

Did I say anything about despair? I said the article was interesting.

I was just referring to the fact that you posted about this very-negative article here on TAY -- didn't intend to make it sound like I was criticizing you or anything, sorry.

Amar given some of some the unfavorable projections looking forward what makes you say this will ultimately be a great season? i ask as someone looking for any reason to stay positive on the rest on the ski year.

I definitely didn't state that it would "be a great season" i.e. implying that it would somehow end up well above-normal for snowfall or snowpack by some later date. That is highly unlikely this year. But I do think that it will be a great-season-of-skiing for me and others who choose to make it so, in that I'll seek out and find really good, enjoyable, even spectacular at times, ski conditions on many dozens of days throughout the rest of winter, spring, and most of the summer. These conditions will most likely be found at mid to higher elevations on the volcanoes.

Overall, even in an absolute worst-case scenario of below-normal snowfall from here going forward (as most long-term projections indicate), it will snow heavily many more times above 5000-6000 ft throughout the next 3 months into mid-May, and probably even a few more times into June as it often does at those elevations. A few major storms are almost certain to dump several feet of snow down to 4000 ft and even 3000 ft. And that's the worst case based on all previous historical precedent, and the unfavorable 30-90 day projections (which by the way, show minimal forecast skill, meaning they have little predictive value better than climatology alone, a fact well-known to the NWS forecasters who put them out).

Best case? A major pattern shift will occur, and it will dump heavily at reasonable elevations for weeks on end! The currently stuck upper-level pattern has a ridge located just over or east of the West Coast, and a trough over the eastern US, dumping record and near-record amounts of snow in southern New England in recent weeks. My parents' yard at 100 ft elevation in Norwell, MA, just southeast of Boston has gotten 27" of new snow during the current storm (see forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NW...edby=BOX&product=PNS) following 13" on February 2-3 and 28" on January 26-28, and now has a sitting snowpack nearly 4 ft deep, greater than Mt Baker Ski Area (31"), Stevens Pass (38"), and even Mt Hood Timberline Lodge (44") -- just an unbelievable situation given that those sites have average annual snowfalls of about 650", 490", and 600" respectively while eastern MA averages barely 40" of snow per year.

However, strangely enough, a similar situation occurred briefly in late January 2005 as Northwest snowpacks plummeted after 4 big Pineapple Expresses and eastern MA got a big snowstorm, putting the snowdepth in my parents' yard slightly above Mt Baker Ski Area at that time too. Meanwhile, all Northwest ski areas except Whistler-Blackcomb, Timberline, and Mt Bachelor (as far as I recall) were forced to close completely by late January 2005, far worse than what has yet happened this year.

A major pattern shift eventually occurred in mid-March 2005, with very heavy snowfall at reasonable snow levels over the next month, and many sites above 4000 ft got over 200" of new snow during that one-month period. Most Northwest ski areas (except Snoqualmie) got enough snow to reopen from mid-March to mid-April too. And the spring skiing season at elevations above 5000 ft ended up being quite good. However, by the numbers 2004-5 still ended up being the worst snow year since 1976-77, and even since 1940-41, at most sites in the Washington and Oregon Cascades. A major pattern shift this season could produce as much snow as late 2005, or even much more if the favorable pattern lasted longer than one month. But there are no indications of that yet, and no certainty of it occurring at all.

But I do think that it will be a great-season-of-skiing for me and others who choose to make it so, in that I'll seek out and find really good, enjoyable, even spectacular at times, ski conditions on many dozens of days throughout the rest of winter, spring, and most of the summer. These conditions will most likely be found at mid to higher elevations on the volcanoes.

Amar,

I can sense your frustration with articles like the recent Times story and the general tenor of the conversation around the ski season so far this year. As a person who spends a lot of his time analyzing data (albeit in a very different domain) I understand the difficulty of trying to match perception with facts.

In the interest of advancing the dialogue let me posit that measures like total snowfall, snow pack depth, or snow water equivalent are poor measures of a typical Washingtonian's feelings about the ski season. Instead, there is some subjective quality measurement of the ski season that will vary from person to person.

For instance take the following two hypothetical winters. In both winters Snoqualmie Pass has its average snowfall of ~430 inches. In Winter A it snows approximately two inches per day every day from November to May at a temperature between 30-32 degrees. In Winter B it snows 11 inches every fourth day from December through March at temperatures of less than 25 degrees.

Speaking only for myself (and at the risk of betraying my snow snobbery) I'd describe Winter A as a bust and Winter B as epic despite the equal snow totals. In winter A I'm not sure I'd ever skip a day of work to hit the mountains while in winter B I'd be asking myself if I can get away with skipping two days a week.

If you forced me to put forth the criteria by which I judge a winter to be good it might look something like: # of days between Dec and March with a minimum snow base of at least 36 inches and an overnight snow fall of at least 8 inches falling at a temp of <25 degrees at any location with a lift. Me? Picky? I can't deny that.

At the risk of making myself look even snobbier I prefer winters with localized storms (eg. convergence zones). In essence it allows me to allocate the ~430 inches of snow in a more efficient manner. A foot at Baker today, a foot at Crystal tomorrow, a foot at Stevens the next day. That's awesome because maybe the Cascades have only gotten a foot overall but it's come in a way that I get triple the skiing benefit.

I'd be curious to know how others might define a good winter?

I'm not attempting to justify the errors or omissions in the Times story, nor am I disputing your data. I'm merely suggesting that the data you've presented doesn't do a particularly good job of characterizing the average Washingtonian's feelings about the quality of the ski season and that the Times story is a reaction to the skiers emotions.

If you can point me toward an easily accessible multi-year bundle of data from one of the ski area telemetry sites I'd be happy to hack away at an algorithm that might characterize the emotion of the ski season. I can even imagine creating a couple personas and developing an algorithm for each (eg. the lift served skiier, the backcountry skier, etc.)

jj - you hit the nail on the head and expressed exactly what I have thinking in your hypothetical winters example. I guess we'll just have to see what the rest of the season brings!

Why get frustrated over something you have no control over? I'm a bit disappointed with this season but that's how the weather is.

This season, how many people have consistently had great skiing throughout the Cascades from Bend up to Baker without having to drive tons, aka: your usual 'backyard' excursions. Few to none.

Sincerely with tons of respect and appreciation for the data analysis and conclusion synthesis, and beating the drum of holding hope, long term trends of late season dumps, along with looking high to get the skimo goods, it still doesn't do anything to polish the turd we've had so far. No offense but look at the webcams of most ski areas...pathetic or no bases, lots of sunny corn days, and rain 6k+ when moisture has come. Corn at the end of a week of high pressure in January is fine, but this is not fine.

That SEA times article is just reflecting the tenor, there is a qualitative aspect not just a quantitative measure of the season, which jj elucidated so well. my 2cents

yep, jj's on to something for sure... it's a bit easier to take Amar's position if you don't mind driving to Rainier or further and have 7 days to choose from, than if you have 2 days and prefer not to drive as far (or for that matter have a seasons pass at Snoqualmie... or even Stevens). Then it's a whole different ballgame--eh, ski season. Ain't nothing wrong with a bit o'despair! No need to be shamed by the blinders brigade.

That said, I'm grateful for the days I've had and hope to have a few more great ones before the seasons over! (but really... does it ever end?

sometimes it snows, sometimes it doesn't.

I dislike skiing in the rain, everything else is a bonus.

jj: well said
amar: science is solid, I love it, but it has problems with feelings
everyone: snow is on the way (timing and intensity is uncertain)

i love not standing in a lift line to get in a couple hot laps.

The currently stuck upper-level pattern has a ridge located just over or east of the West Coast, and a trough over the eastern US, dumping record and near-record amounts of snow in southern New England in recent weeks.

I share with Amar's sentiments over the somewhat ridiculous ST article.

Amar why do you think strong ridging over the pacific and west coast will move? Are you saying that it is statistically unlikely to stick around for the remainder of the season based on historical observation?

Cliff Mass seems to think there is no evidence that the persistent ridge is going anywhere. Just curious on where your thoughts differ. Thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.

I recall the 1977 season -- it was worse.    Ski Acres (now Summit Central) operated a grand total of one day.    I recall hiking to the three Kendall Lakes and up to the notch that looks down Silver Creek during January.   The upper most Kendall Lake was frozen with clear hard ice, skates would have been fun.   The little snow I encountered was firm, no postholing was required.

I share with Amar's sentiments over the somewhat ridiculous ST article.

Amar why do you think strong ridging over the pacific and west coast will move? Are you saying that it is statistically unlikely to stick around for the remainder of the season based on historical observation?

I don't think it will move for certain, the worst-case scenario I mentioned above would include that ridge sticking around (on average) through the entire rest of the season. But that is very statistically unlikely, and in fact, would be unprecedented over the 80-100 year period for which we have reasonable snowfall and snowpack records from at least several mountain locations in the Cascades. There have been a couple of really bad snow seasons (back in the early 1940s) where such ridging did stick around from January or February through the entire rest of winter and spring, but those did not have that ridging throughout earlier in the season like this year.

Cliff Mass seems to think there is no evidence that the persistent ridge is going anywhere. Just curious on where your thoughts differ. Thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.

Cliff's latest blogs indicate that the seasonal outlooks and tools which he looks at show no signs of such change (just like the ones which are publicly available), but that really means very little since none of the tools have almost any forecast skill.

There is absolutely no way to predict whether the ridge will remain over the next few months, or vanish, or return later if it vanishes for a while. Numerical weather prediction models are only run out to about 14-16 days, and really only have predictive skill over the first 5-7 days out, maybe 8-10 days max under certain conditions. Seasonal outlooks (30-90 days out to one year) such as the ones at www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/ are not based on numerical weather models and are not really forecasts at all (which is why NOAA now usually refers to them as outlooks, not as forecasts), but instead are a blend of climatology and various statistical models, plus a lot of black art and voodoo. See www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictio...ong_range/tools.html for more info on what goes into the seasonal outlook sausage and how it turns out ("FOR ALL MODELS PRECIPITATION FORECASTS ARE GENERALLY LESS SKILLFUL THAN TEMPERATURE -- WITH MARGINAL SKILL FOR ALL TOOLS EVEN IN THEIR BEST SEASONS AND LOCATIONS UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES"), and see www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictio...ng_range/fxus07.html and www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictio...ng_range/fxus05.html for non-technical discussions of the current 30 and 90 outlooks. They are only statistical and probabilistic in their predictions, and have very little forecast skill as stated, a situation which is unlikely to improve much over the upcoming decades (these seasonal outlooks have not been improving much in recent decades, unlike numerical weather models which have improved immensely over the past 2-3 decades, and even the past few years).

Wonderfully put. Thanks again!

So what you're saying is there's hope! ;D

Sadly it boils down to what you prefer skiing, powder or corn and if you prefer lifts to touring. If you are a corn fan and love checking out women in halter tops and are willing to skin a bit then this year has been awesome. I definitely have enjoyed the sights at Rainier plus some decent spring turns. However, it is not spring time. I want those ladies covered up all I want to see when they are skiing is a white ball and a hat poking out once in awhile.

Now don't get me wrong corn can be fun and you throw some hard cider in your pack and it great, but if you want pow like JJ seems to prefer then this year so far has been a total bust and looking out 7 days it is still a pig. I am in the JJ camp this is one of my worst years I prefer halter tops in April not January and February now I want dumps at 25 F. I will even take them at 28 F. As I mentioned before we do not get the true top quality pow here except on rare occasions in any year, but we get lovely winter skiing. Our January's however lately have been poor.

There is a chance for a big March, but for me this is one of the bottom 5 in 52 years. I missed the 2004-2005 debacle. I cheated and spent a month around Tahoe, Mammoth and Southern Utah. By doing that I had a monster year. So far that trick would not have worked this time. That bothers me. This is not a true El Niño. It should not be this bad - something else is going on. Then when I came back I believe March was ok around here in 2004-2005. There was one in the 1970s and another in 1980s as well that sucked and were associated with El Niño . However so far this year is the second or third poorest. The spring could make it my poorest or who knows pull it out of the bottom five.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday calling all halter tops.......go to Paradise.......more spring skiing. If no pow give us old duffers something to look at.

By the way my most favorite guy on TAY is Amar. Without him this website would be totally boring especially in a year like this. He is also great to ski with. We have hat skied together at least once or twice. I do want to take him to Utah and introduce him to ghost skiing. That is so rare and so awesome. It is like a 30 year single malt Scotch Whiskey. However, if that happened Amar might just move away forget about volcanoes turn into a ghostoholic and that might not be a good idea. We would all miss him at least I would.

Sadly it boils down to what you prefer skiing, powder or corn and if you prefer lifts to touring. 

And how far you tend to be up for driving… I’ve had a few OK touring days, and one really nice touring day, all before New Years day. And one good-enough day on the lifts. I’ve had some great hiking and biking and am in better biking shape than ever for this time of year. For a few reasons I’ve not tended to be up for the 6+ hour round trip drives that would have been required to get more decent tours in. Kudos to those who have done so, and even more props to the ones who have filled up the car for a reduced carbon footprint!

While it’s hard to complain about the great outdoor recreation weather I’ve had (aka very nice biking and hiking) it was hard not to feel a bit sad about the bare dirt we were walking on as we crossed the ridge at 4200+ over toward Mason Lake this past Sunday afternoon especially with a fresh memory of walking on a half-decent depth of beautiful snow up there back in early January. I just had to keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be able to get some work out of the way in the AM and still have time to fit in a hike like that before dark, in February.

Regarding the news article from the OP – oh noooes, a news story that used hyperbole and breezed sketchily over the statistics to generate a bit of a sense of drama! Who would have thunk it??

Here are some things to think about. The article may have not gotten it totally correct but this is what I see and it is not looking good. What we are experiencing is due to the big change in the jet stream which has become more kinky is the best way to put it. Reason: More heat being retained in the atmosphere plain and simple.


1) Iditarod Race moved to Fairbanks due to the record mild winter in Anchorage. Jet going literally straight up to Alaska. Record warm average temperatures according to my cousin who lives there. Valdez experiencing record warm.


2) California continuing in a massive draught. Check these reports for their ski areas and the low bases:


www.onthesnow.com/california/skireport.html


Glad I did not go to Bishop and play the El Niño which did not materialize.


3) Utah started out decent, but then has turned to poor skiing. They have been experiencing record high temps there. My nephew may mow his yard next week. He does not ever mow until May he lives at 5000 feet!!


4) Today in Port Orchard will be my first lawn mowing and it will be the earliest by at least two weeks. A couple of times I have mowed in late Feb.


5) Northeast is experiencing record snow and it has low temps. Notice I do not say record cold. This is a pattern you would expect since that kinky jet is coming straight on to the Eastern Midwest from the Arctic. Despite this the temperatures are not bitterly cold because the polar temps are not getting as cold.


6) Our ski season is deplorable and this is not even an El Niño year. What is sad is you could run out and take advantage of this and do a long tour in these spring like conditions this next week due to the mild mostly clear weather, but there is a problem. It is cooling a tad with no precip which will mean hard icy slopes with only the occasional corn. We are heading maybe just maybe for my worst year unless we get a big turnaround. I have seen one or two with less snow so far, but they were saved by an OK spring.


Saying this I will be out one day over President's Day.


This is a very unusual pattern it is not what you would expect. We should be having only a subpar year let us say 35-40" at Snoq, 60" at Stevens, 80" at Baker and Paradise with some bitching due to the lack of powder days. Nope not the case we instead are having a total blowout in a year without an official El Niño. Plus other areas in the West overall have poor conditions. This is what is scary folks. This is not only a pig it is a harbinger pig and that is a bad omen for future years. There has been a lot of talk denying climate change on the web the last few weeks probably due to what is happening out East.........well the overall average T across the contiguous US and Alaska record warm. No denying what is happening. Even like I noted la Ninjas are warmer than before still lots of snow but warmer than they used to be.


I knew this was coming I just did not know how bad it would be.

For comparison - opening day coverage on Tye Mill @ Stevens Pass vs. now.

12/28/14:
https://scontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/l/t1.0-9/522128_10103692694248028_3570286174630334054_n.jpg?oh=00436dd55f6b0a01180fcca0e2ae1ad3&oe=554D0DB7

2/15/14:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10451331_10103849246545968_5163634763591982442_n.jpg?oh=35cc52157c0c36ffb7fd2883b0ce04a9&oe=555F2AC9&__gda__=1434908076_6d0cb4d9fc81a71c266a56b61d659b50

As we are tirelessly reminded one season does not make a trend. However, the current snowpack numbers certainly won't help the averages:

CLIMATOLOGICAL SNOWDEPTH INFORMATION
NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER SEATTLE WASHINGTON
DAY 15 MONTH 2 YEAR 2015

DATA IN INCHES, -99 DENOTES MISSING DATA

CURRENT CLIMATE PER CENT LAST THRU 2014 THRU 2014
DEPTH AVERAGE OF NORMAL YEAR MAX/YEAR MIN/YEAR

HURRICANE 4 87 5 44 198/1999 17/2005
MT BAKER 22 138 16 107 244/1999 24/1977
STEVENS 34 93 37 80 166/1956 16/1977
SNOQUALMIE 21 85 25 61 168/1949 4/1977
STAMPEDE -99 90 -99 53 202/1949 0/1977
MISSION 9 42 21 38 71/1999 9/1976
CRYSTAL 8 61 13 44 117/1999 0/1977
PARADISE 57 143 40 121 264/1972 24/1977
WHITE PASS 0 54 0 41 100/1999 0/1977
TIMBERLINE 46 128 36 101 230/2002 8/1977
MEADOWS 31 106 29 86 187/1974 4/1977

THIS TABLE PRODUCED ON THE 1ST AND 15TH BETWEEN 15 NOVEMBER AND 1 MAY.

AVERAGES, MAXIMUMS AND MINIMUMS EARLY AND LATE IN THE SEASON MAY BE
INACCURATE DUE TO LIMITED DATA.

IF THERE IS TIE FOR THE MAXIMUM OR MINIMUM SNOW DEPTH THEN THE LATEST
YEAR IS INDICATED.

RECORDS BEGIN: HURRICANE 1979, MT BAKER 1926, STEVENS 1939,
SNOQUALMIE 1929, STAMPEDE 1943, MISSION RIDGE 1970,
CRYSTAL 1967, PARADISE 1926, WHITE PASS 1976,
TIMBERLINE 1973, MT HOOD MEADOWS 1974.

NOTE: NRCS DATA USED AT STAMPEDE STARTING 2006-2007 SEASON.

Apologies for the formatting.

I'm sorry, no matter how many people claim they believe in the Easter Bunny, social consensus does not make a baseless claim any truer.

cliffmass.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-origi...ers-weather.html?m=1

Apologies for the formatting.

Enclosing fixed-width text in tags fixes the formatting and makes the columns align properly:

CLIMATOLOGICAL SNOWDEPTH INFORMATION
NORTHWEST AVALANCHE CENTER SEATTLE WASHINGTON
DAY  15  MONTH  2  YEAR  2015

DATA IN INCHES, -99 DENOTES MISSING DATA

            CURRENT  CLIMATE  PER CENT   LAST  THRU 2014  THRU 2014
            DEPTH    AVERAGE  OF NORMAL  YEAR  MAX/YEAR   MIN/YEAR

HURRICANE     4       87        5         44   198/1999    17/2005
MT BAKER     22      138       16        107   244/1999    24/1977
STEVENS      34       93       37         80   166/1956    16/1977
SNOQUALMIE   21       85       25         61   168/1949     4/1977
STAMPEDE    -99       90      -99         53   202/1949     0/1977
MISSION       9       42       21         38    71/1999     9/1976
CRYSTAL       8       61       13         44   117/1999     0/1977
PARADISE     57      143       40        121   264/1972    24/1977
WHITE PASS    0       54        0         41   100/1999     0/1977
TIMBERLINE   46      128       36        101   230/2002     8/1977
MEADOWS      31      106       29         86   187/1974     4/1977

THIS TABLE PRODUCED ON THE 1ST AND 15TH BETWEEN 15 NOVEMBER AND 1 MAY.

AVERAGES, MAXIMUMS AND MINIMUMS EARLY AND LATE IN THE SEASON MAY BE
INACCURATE DUE TO LIMITED DATA.

IF THERE IS TIE FOR THE MAXIMUM OR MINIMUM SNOW DEPTH THEN THE LATEST
YEAR IS INDICATED.

RECORDS BEGIN: HURRICANE 1979, MT BAKER 1926, STEVENS 1939,
SNOQUALMIE 1929, STAMPEDE 1943, MISSION RIDGE 1970,
CRYSTAL 1967, PARADISE 1926, WHITE PASS 1976,
TIMBERLINE 1973, MT HOOD MEADOWS 1974.

NOTE: NRCS DATA USED AT STAMPEDE STARTING 2006-2007 SEASON.

Thanks Amar! Now if you could just re-format the weather...............

Finally, some hope on the horizon...

www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/

It is the long term (with all the uncertainty caveats that Amar mentions), but I think it's the first time in a long time that is has shown something other than warm & dry in the extended...