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| Blue skies, mountain wave clouds, and heavenly spring weather at the U @ 2:30 PM 25 Feb 2014 |
At 7000 feet and below, everything sure looks and feels like April right now. There's no snow in the valley, Mountain Dell is closed for cross country skiing, and snow is barely apparent along SR-224 near Kimball Junction.
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| Source: UDOT/NWS |
At an elevation of 6000 ft, the Ben Lomond Trail SNOTEL is the only one in the Wasatch that I am aware of that is below an elevation of 7000 feet. This is a snowy location with a fairly significant snowpack compared to the Park City area (as usual), but even there, the snowpack SWE is pretty much what one would expect in mid April. There's even some evidence of a modest decline, although that could also be spurious.
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| Source: NRCS |
Finally, we have the temperatures. At 2:05 PM, the temperature at the Salt Lake airport is 63ºF, which equates to the average high on April 21st. The only thing that isn't April like is the snowpack at upper elevations. Snowpack SWE at Snowbird is consistent with the median for Feb 1 or early June, depending on if you want to argue we have an early or late season snowpack.
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| Source: NRCS |
Jim - Another one under 7000':
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/reportGenerator/view/customSingleStationReport/hourly/972%3Aut%3ASNTL/-167%2C0/WTEQ%3A%3Avalue%2CSNWD%3A%3Avalue%2CPREC%3A%3Avalue%2CTOBS%3A%3Avalue
Snotel 972 Louis Meadow (upper City Creek); granted, only 300' under 7000', but a good data point.
Forgot about that one. Thanks for sharing. It's quite remarkable how much more snow there is there than Kimball Junction. The advantages of being windward and probably shady.
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