This is not a comprehensive sample, but it appears that all of the persistent snow patches that linger deep into summer and fall that I can typically spy from the top of Snowbird are gone.
I hiked up the bird this morning and it was about as clear as it gets when I arrived on the summit. I couldn't spy a single patch of snow below the American Fork Twins (this has been the case for at least a couple of weeks) or in upper Hogum Fork where snow tends to linger.
Thus it appears that this summer we have had a full and complete reset of the central Wasatch snowpack, although perhaps one of you out there can tell us that there is a patch lingering somewhere. Central Wasatch does not include Mt. Timpanogos where it is more likely that something remains around the Timpanogos Snowfield and rock glacier.
Snowbird though is preparing to do something about this as I noticed they are beginning to deploy their snowguns.
Meanwhile, Ski Utah is pinning all of their hopes on the Super El Niño. One of my students gave me the sticker below from yesterday's Utah Avalanche Center Backcountry Benefit.
Feels like it will never snow below 8000ft again.
ReplyDeleteIt will.
DeleteThe timp snowfield is VERY small too! But skiable still…
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs a hobby.
DeleteI thought Timp was part of the the central Wasatch? What would you consider it to be?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if there is formal definition, but I generally consider the central Wasatch to be the area from Parley's Canyon/I-80 to the Alpine Ridge to the south of Little Cottonwood. This is in line with the definition of the Central Wasatch Commission (https://cwc.utah.gov/about/). I probably also think of the south side of the Alpine Ridge as being part of the central Wasatch.
DeleteI'm not a geologist, but meteorologically, the central Wasatch as defined above has a somewhat distinct microclimate compared to the "Southern Wasatch" to the south which extends from about Box Elder to Nephi and includes Mt. Timpanagos. The southern Wasatch is more linear and narrow, sees less cool-season snowfall than the Cottonwoods, and has a narrower storm climatology more heavily dependent on S-SW flow storms.
Yeah, I'd have said I-80 to AF canyon (including Lone Peak). But not south of there.
DeleteMakes sense. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAre El Niño years not typically much much warmer than La Niña years? And was last year not a La Niña? I agree that many of our wettest years are El Niño, but I am very concerned about the temperatures. Can you comment on this?
ReplyDeleteEl Nino winters are biased warmer in the Pacific Northwest and north-central plains. Utah is on the southern edge of this so not as much of a lock.
DeleteThe latest outlooks from the climate prediction center for DJF put most of utah in "equal chances" for temperature, meaning there's no strong loading of the dice. The northwest and northern-central plains are weighted to above average temperature.
For the later winter (e.g., Feb-Apr), the odds for northern Utah are shifted slightly to above average.
You can access these outlooks at https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1.
Nearly any winter around here these days has the dice loaded for above average temperatures relative to the climatology of the 20th century simply due to global warming. For Dec-Feb, 8 of the last 10 winters featured temperatures in the northern Utah Mountains that were warmer than the 20th century average.
So, not impossible we have a cold winter, but more likely warm.
Whether or not that strongly affects midwinter snowpack though depends on many factors.