Coldest Early March in a Generation, Large Improvement in Regional Snowpack – Beragampengetahuan

If it feels a bit chilly to you, you are not imagining it.   

And if you are worried about the snowpack, you can rest easy, there have been big gains since the start of the year.

First, temperature.  For many of you, this is the coldest early March in memory.  Consider the average high temperatures for the first five days of March in Seattle (see below).   We are experiencing the coldest start to March since the late 1980s.   

There is something else interesting in this plot:  the average high temperatures in early March have actually COOLED since the 1980s (the trend line is shown by the brown line).   

If you want to really get a chill up your spine, take a look at the minimum temperatures this morning (March 6).  Mid-20s over southern Puget Sound and single digits over northeast Washington.  Portions of central Oregon dropped below ZERO.   This is with longer days and a much stronger sun.

Then there is the issue of snowpack.   Well, good news…..there has been substantial recovery and more is on the way.

The current snowpack percentage of normal for Washington State (shown below), shows several watersheds (like the crucial Yakima) at 80% or more.  The western side of the Cascades is now at roughly 2/3 of normal.   And the Olympics, which was down to roughly 25% has doubled to 50%.

Oregon’s snowpack is in excellent shape (see below), with many watersheds well over 100% of normal.

Just to show you how much things have improved, below is the situation over Washington on January 4th.    MUCH worse, with much of the state below 50% of normal snowpack. Huge improvement.

So with all this cold and snowy news, what do you think was on the front page of the Seattle Times this morning?   

Lack of snow and DROUGHT.  And without a single mention of El Nino, the key driver of the lack of snow earlier in the season.  I will leave it to you to speculate why they are doing this.  But it is not good.