Do you ever wonder what it would be like if it started snowing and never stopped?
- Steve Casimiro, Editor, Powder Magazine, 1987-1998
The epic 2022/23 ski season continues. How I have wanted to write a sentence like that since the 2010/11 season!
I wasn't sure what to expect for yesterday, but lo and behold it turned out to be another pretty good day of ski touring.
I got home and took a quick peek at the 18Z HRRR and it was only putting out about 0.37" of water and 4" of snow at Alta and I though maybe things wouldn't go off for Sunday. Then at about 3 PM yesterday it started snowing. Then i picked up to 2-3" per hour snowfall rates. And by 8 PM there was 10" on the Collins stake. Then it kept snowing. They are now up to 21" based on the automated interval observations.
What can I say? Mother Nature can't be stopped. She continues to produce. Total snow depth at Alta is now up to 178".
Keep skiing.
What's especially great about this winter is anecdotally, a lot of the better-than-average seasons in recent memory (especially 2016-17, if my memory serves correct) have been dominated by warm southwest-flow systems that resulted in a lot of high-density avalanche hell in the mountains and less snow/more rain than usual in the valleys. Seems like there's been less of that this time around.
ReplyDeleteGood insight. This season we've seen a lot of ridging over the North Pacific and troughing over the western US, which means we've had a number of storms that have been dropping out of the northwest and have been relatively cold.
DeleteFor this late in the season, that is an ideal pattern.
Seems an ideal pattern for any time in the season, other than maybe Oct-Nov if you're worried about base building.
DeleteGood point. If I had better put it, I probably would have said that the colder storms are especially important this time of year for powder preservation. In January, you can live with a warmer pattern.
DeleteI have been wondering what it would like if started snowing and never stopped.
ReplyDeleteAs you direct, I will keep skiing, though I would probably do that on my own it never hurts for you to post the message.
There is chatter Alta is ahead of record snowfall, which I have from the UAC data as 745 inches at Alta Guard in 1994-95, closely followed by 744 inches 1983-84. This is Nov to April, so October, May and June are not counted.
Do you know if we are ahead of record, and what that record is.
Great winter to be retired.
I don't get regular updates on the Alta-Guard measurements, so I don't know the answer to your question.
DeleteThe only record that matters is how many deep powder days you have had.
This is true since we only ski on the top surface and maybe a foot or two below. The rest of the 186" base (today) below that are nice but what's on top is what matters...Frode Jensen
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