Where’s The Snow?
I guess you could say El Niño took it….
No snow at the Cascade Tunnel. The orange markers on the left
are normally used by BNSF snow plow crews to locate the slide fence.
This weekend I visited Washington’s Steven’s Pass on a photography and railfanning adventure. I heard there was little snow on the pass but was shocked to find there was none in locations where I was used to seeing a couple of feet. In fact west of the summit there was not any snow below about 3000 ft. of elevation. East of the summit where the temperatures tend to stay low longer the snow extended out to around Peshastin.
In the several trips I made across the pass the lowest temperature I saw on my vehicle thermometer was 34 degrees! Since I’m not a skier I’m not sure how that affects skiing but I’m sure the snow was melting and slushy based on what I saw elsewhere. It did precipitate all weekend but it was primarily rain even at the 4000 ft. elevation at the summit.
So, what’s in store for us? According to the Climate Prediction Center…
For the contiguous United States, potential El Niño impacts include above-average precipitation for the southern tier of the country, with below-average precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.
From the website it looks like another El Niño update will be issued Thursday so I guess stay tuned for what the rest of the year will hold.
Normal snow at the Cascade Tunnel. This is what it should be this time of year.
