Sunday, December 21, 2008

Deep Powder... RUINED

I think everyone will agree that freezing rain is miserable. It's rare that freezing rain falls at the ski areas, but it happened overnight Saturday night into Sunday. If any of you were up to the mountain expecting to enjoy the five-plus feet of light fluffy powder, I can only imagine your level of disappointment and disgust to discover that the powder was totally ruined by a freezing rain-caused icy crust. I'm bitter about it... and I wasn't even up there to experience it.

It was a complicated weather situation that caused the freezing rain in the mountains. I won't get into the physics of it. Instead, I'll jump to the punchline: it's over! No more threat of freezing rain. And it does look like we'll get significant new snow to cover that icy crust in the coming days. Wednesday through Friday will feature another monster snowstorm for the Cascades -- expect at least 2 feet of new snow. It may end up being 3-4 feet when the storm winds down late in the week. Friday looks to be a "Powder Alert" day with high-quality snow, as the snow level will be down to nearly 1,000 feet and temperatures will be in the teens at the higher ski areas.

I should also mention that avalanche danger is now extremely high, due to that heavy crust on top of the deep powder. Backcountry skiing/boarding at higher elevations is a terrible idea this week -- stay safe and wait until the snowpack stabilizes.

Have a great holiday break!

Drew

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Drew - Glad you're back. I've been checking back occasionally in the hope that you'd come back.

Can you tell if the general weather pattern is set up for a better than normal winter, or are we going to revert to the usual? Thanks,