At a Glance
- The Cascades of the Pacific Northwest have picked up feet of snow since the start of the New Year.
- One location saw its snowpack increase 94 inches since Jan. 1.
- Snowpack throughout the Cascades is now closer to average compared to two weeks ago.
The start of 2020 has brought much-needed snowfall to the Pacific Northwest, including one location where the snow depth increased nearly 100 inches in 12 days.
Paradise Ranger Station at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington had a snow depth of 143 inches as of early Jan. 13, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle. That's a snowpack gain of 94 inches at that location since Jan. 1.
The immense snowpack increase can be seen in the before-and-after comparison below from a webcam at Paradise's Jackson Visitor Center.
Shown in the before image is a snapshot of Jan. 1, which shows a plowed parking lot and numerous people at the visitor center. You can see how the snow has piled up significantly since then in the after image from Monday.
Paradise sits at an elevation of 5,400 feet to the south of Mount Rainier's peak, which rises to over 14,000 feet.
The area averages about 640 inches (53.3 feet) of snow per season.
Paradise once held the U.S. record for the most snowfall in a season when it measured 1,122 inches (93.5 feet) in the 1971-72 snow season. That was topped in the 1998-99 season when Mount Baker in northern Washington saw 1,140 inches of snow.
The copious amount of snow to begin January is good news for the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest.
Snow water equivalent, which is measure of how much water content is locked into the snowpack, was 97% of average at Paradise Monday. That's an increase from just 45% of average on Jan. 1.
The rest of the Washington and Oregon Cascade mountains have also seen big gains in snowpack when compared to a couple weeks ago.
Parts of the Pacific Northwest were classified as abnormally dry or in moderate drought as of Jan. 7, but some improvement could occur when the new update of the drought monitor is released Thursday.
Snowfall in fall, winter and spring helps reduce the odds of drought during summer in the Pacific Northwest, as the melted snow in the spring provides the water supply for parts of the region during the drier summer months.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
