December 1st Western US Snowpack numbers

14356873:SmokedGouda said:
Jeez, how fucking north did La Niña go? Doesn’t anyone remember when alyeska couldn’t even get snow to their base a few years back. Damn!
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Dude it’s fucking weird. My friend from anchorage shared this photo back awhile. He texted me it in October.

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14356873:SmokedGouda said:
Jeez, how fucking north did La Niña go? Doesn’t anyone remember when alyeska couldn’t even get snow to their base a few years back. Damn!
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Climate change isnt real
 
Too many humans living off one river that's rapidly drying up. Of course its going to show up in the form of less snow and tons of wildfires.

Land that was stolen from Mexico so white people shouldn't really be complaining. Be glad it lasted while it did. Hopefully Canada stops the tyrannical stuff since Inner Rockies north of the border should still continue to get snow. But even Seattle is having 100 degree summer days now.

Those eco systems are fragile and might just be fucked.
 
14356880:PeppermillReno said:
What is Alaska like Dec/Jan in terms of daylight?

Is there even enough to ski being that far north?
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Anchorage, Alaska gets like 5 hours of sunlight peak winter solstice so it’s not like up North in Deadhorse.
 
Mt Baker just chilling up in the green zone Iike, see this is why we should be part of Canada wtf is this state even doing?!
 
I think maine should be a part of Canada too, the majority of people don't know we exist.

14356908:Casey said:
Mt Baker just chilling up in the green zone Iike, see this is why we should be part of Canada wtf is this state even doing?!
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Such a rainy day

and its mine

the most rainiest day of my life

fuck, the kootenays just got 70mm of rain in the last 4 days. Been hot too with 13C yesterday. Unbelievable.
 
any lower western skiers thinking about skiing game plans for 10-15-20 years down the line? just continue to send it in colorado/utah/tahoe and hope nothing changes too much?
 
14357023:mattytru said:
any lower western skiers thinking about skiing game plans for 10-15-20 years down the line? just continue to send it in colorado/utah/tahoe and hope nothing changes too much?
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Marrying a Canadian and moving to Alberta or inner BC would be best.

Spokane for access to Canada maybe if you don't have money.

Only problem is Canada is 1 step behind Australia for covid tyranny.
 
sunshine has gotten over 3 feet in the past week, so there is still hope for us Canadians. also its forecasted for my local hill to get 25cms this Sunday which is a big W for east coast
 
14357038:CalumSKI said:
sunshine has gotten over 3 feet in the past week, so there is still hope for us Canadians. also its forecasted for my local hill to get 25cms this Sunday which is a big W for east coast
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i've seen predictions that show snowfall totals not changing too much on the northern east coast. northern vermont, new hampshire, maine, and quebec especially might continue to be viable ski options. at least compared to the drop off in snowfall the west is currently experiencing
 
14357045:mattytru said:
i've seen predictions that show snowfall totals not changing too much on the northern east coast. northern vermont, new hampshire, maine, and quebec especially might continue to be viable ski options. at least compared to the drop off in snowfall the west is currently experiencing
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It interesting looking at historical moisture patterns in the west. Some would assume that a warmer climate is driving a decline in snowfall, but Ive seen some that may presume a slight change in weather patterns. There is still warming, but the change in moisture is from something else because the west has been gettin slightly drier ever since the 1920s. Maybe its just a change/advancement in monitoring, but based solely on trends, something else has to be at play. Not discrediting climate change, just proving its existence even more. Funny enough, moisture totals in the east are increasing which could lead to both bigger snowstorms, but also more devastating rain which could impact the snowpack. In the near future, the problem for a lot of areas wont be snowfall, but snowpack. Temperature swings are becoming more and more extreme and if the snowfall cant help to rebuild from a warming trend, then you begin to see declines sooner and sooner. Like this season, October was amazing for the month, but then November presented record temps or near record temps and now some areas had to either delay openings or closed(tahoe resorts). Definitely getting weird though.
 
14357107:MikeStreeter said:
Its crazy how much the weather has been changing. When I went to Winter Park in August it snowed and was 40 degrees at Trestle.
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It’s not too far out of the ordinary to get one or two little dustings in August, but winter weather is becoming a lot weirder that something other than just a warming climate has to be at play. Maybe we’re all overreacting in the short term and being very in the moment, but it has been a weird start to the season.

**This post was edited on Dec 2nd 2021 at 12:21:44pm
 
I'm confused by what the 'current snow water equivalent (SWE) % of Normal' means? Is higher or lower percentages better? How is this measured?
 
14357165:Edude said:
I'm confused by what the 'current snow water equivalent (SWE) % of Normal' means? Is higher or lower percentages better? How is this measured?
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All are measured by the 1980 average or a set standard in order to have adequate amounts of water to fill reservoirs and watersheds. It’s based on 100% being the normal. A lot of these numbers are well below that. So higher, the better. 100% is optimal for water storages. Above 100% and drought conditions could improve.
 
Storm coming next week, thank fuck. Its so warm and dry in utah, don't golf every december thats for sure.

Very much so a similar start as last year and 2017. People freaking out/saying this isn't normal need to relax, a dry/warm november isn't anything to worry about, but every bad year starts with a bad november. Hopefully this storm cycle starts rippin and we have a good december.
 
14357165:Edude said:
I'm confused by what the 'current snow water equivalent (SWE) % of Normal' means? Is higher or lower percentages better? How is this measured?
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SWE is a measure of how much water is actually locked up in the snowpack. A super dense maritime snowpack will melt into more runoff than a lighter, fluffier, continental snowpack. It's basically measuring the weight of the snowpack as opposed to the thickness. Then that number is compared to the average number on the current date as recorded over decades prior. So higher is better. A 50% on that map indicates there is estimated to be half the snow water equivalent as usual in the watershed on that date.
 
14357178:broto said:
SWE is a measure of how much water is actually locked up in the snowpack. A super dense maritime snowpack will melt into more runoff than a lighter, fluffier, continental snowpack. It's basically measuring the weight of the snowpack as opposed to the thickness. Then that number is compared to the average number on the current date as recorded over decades prior. So higher is better. A 50% on that map indicates there is estimated to be half the snow water equivalent as usual in the watershed on that date.
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This too. Good take!
 
14357175:eheath said:
Storm coming next week, thank fuck. Its so warm and dry in utah, don't golf every december thats for sure.

Very much so a similar start as last year and 2017. People freaking out/saying this isn't normal need to relax, a dry/warm november isn't anything to worry about, but every bad year starts with a bad november. Hopefully this storm cycle starts rippin and we have a good december.
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I’ve been looking at the long term models too many times recently. Always trying to get updates on those storms moving in next week. We can only hope that they produce quite a bit…or even overproduce.
 
14357179:SmokedGouda said:
This too. Good take!
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The other thing to keep in mind with SWE this time of year is that the average snowpack in early December is relatively thin. If there's usually 4 feet of snow on the ground on today's date and there's only 2 feet currently, that will look pretty bad sitting at 50%. But a few decent storms can get us back on track pretty quick. Whereas if we're at 50% of normal in mid-march when the average is closer to like 40 feet of snow, then it's going to take a lot more snowfall to turn those numbers around because we're 20 feet short of usual. Like eheath said, I've definitely seen similarly bad starts to the ski year that end up above average in the end. Sure, it's a bad start but it's still really early.
 
14357401:ReturnToMonkey said:
This was sarcastic ya kooks

Guess I shoulda added quotes

**This post was edited on Dec 2nd 2021 at 7:05:50pm
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I know, just wanted to call you a monkey brain
 
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