Alta 900!

By now this is old news, but the big 900 has fallen at Alta.  Courtesy of the Alta Ski Patrol, below is the 6" measurement on Tuesday morning that put them over the top.  

The previous seasonal snowfall record for the resort was 748 inches in 1981–82.  I wonder if they were collecting snowfall measurements then at the base or at the current Alta–Collins site and what the frequency of measurement was.  Perhaps someone from Alta Ski Patrol can comment.  Often such info is lost to the sands of time.  

I'm curious to see where Alta-Guard ends up for the year.  Records there go back to 1945–46, although they are November to April rather than October to April.  The previous record is 745.4" for November to April set in 1994–95.  They haven't sent in their April observations to the Utah Avalanche Center yet.  

A lot of people ask me about differences between the various measurement sites in upper Little Cottonwood.  There are three that I have access to.  Alta Ski Area, Alta-Guard, and the Alta Coop site.  They measure in three different locations.  They may not use the same measurement practices (i.e., times and frequency).  Finally, those locations and practices may have changed over the years.  Perhaps they used to measure every 24 hours or at the end of the storm, but have shifted to every 12 hours or some other approach.  Perhaps they moved the measurement locations.  These changes do affect the measurements and the time series.  We have discussed this previously.   

That said, there is little doubt that this year was an epic.  Congrats to Alta on the record.  700 for next season I hope.