Historical NWAC Snowdepth Data & Plots
(page created February 2005, updated February 2006)
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See the main Cascade Snowfall and Snowdepth page, plus
Snow Season Reports: 2005-2006, 2004-2005,
2003-2004, 2002-2003
See also Previous Seasons, Normals & Info,
Cascades El Niño / La Niña, and NEW
Paradise & Crater Lake Snowfall/Snowdepth Plots
This page contains an archive of snowdepth data at selected sites in the Olympic Mountains and
Cascade Range from Mount Baker to Mount Hood (and now extended north to Whistler Mountain and south to Crater
Lake and Lassen Chalet), covering the period from November 15 to May 1 starting with the 1916-17 season. This data was originally
compiled by the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center (NWAC),
and I have taken the liberty of supplementing it with additional data including the Whistler, Crater Lake, and Lassen sites.
I have written a custom plotting program (using PHP and the GD graphics library) to display the data for any
season or site, with user-selectable options for which data and plot elements are shown, including average,
maximum, and minimum values. The ENSO status can be displayed for seasons
since 1949-50. A table below the graph shows the full set of available data for each season or site. See the
Notes and Version History below for additional info.
This page largely supersedes the older Archive of NWAC Climatological Snowdepth
Reports with original NWAC reports back to 1997. The plotting program is new as of February 2005, updated
April 2005. Please notify me of any problems or bugs, and I will attempt to fix
them as soon as possible.
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| 2005-2006 Season |
11/15/05 |
12/1/05 |
12/15/05 |
1/1/06 |
1/15/06 |
2/1/06 |
2/15/06 |
3/1/06 |
3/15/06 |
4/1/06 |
4/15/06 |
5/1/06 |
| Whistler Mountain | 5400 ft |
24" |
34" |
30" |
54" |
99" |
107" |
96" |
104" |
114" |
— |
— |
— |
| Hurricane Ridge | 5100 ft |
— |
30" |
28" |
37" |
74" |
107" |
101" |
104" |
124" |
— |
— |
— |
| Mt Baker Ski Area | 5400 ft |
69" |
67" |
59" |
66" |
134" |
177" |
172" |
188" |
199" |
— |
— |
— |
| Stevens Pass | 4000 ft |
36" |
50" |
40" |
56" |
81" |
125" |
117" |
127" |
133" |
— |
— |
— |
| Snoqualmie Pass | 3000 ft |
22" |
39" |
33" |
49" |
83" |
112" |
106" |
118" |
118" |
— |
— |
— |
| Stampede Pass | 3900 ft |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
127" |
— |
135" |
— |
— |
— |
| Mission Ridge | 5300 ft |
— |
22" |
21" |
35" |
48" |
67" |
63" |
66" |
68" |
— |
— |
— |
| Crystal Mountain | 4400 ft |
36" |
40" |
36" |
54" |
70" |
103" |
92" |
95" |
107" |
— |
— |
— |
| Mt Rainier Paradise | 5400 ft |
48" |
60" |
58" |
91" |
135" |
172" |
162" |
179" |
201" |
— |
— |
— |
| White Pass | 4500 ft |
19" |
26" |
22" |
46" |
50" |
73" |
70" |
74" |
91" |
— |
— |
— |
| Mt Hood Timberline | 6000 ft |
40" |
50" |
65" |
90" |
120" |
177" |
164" |
176" |
203" |
— |
— |
— |
| Mt Hood Meadows | 5200 ft |
41" |
51" |
66" |
96" |
110" |
154" |
153" |
154" |
181" |
— |
— |
— |
| Crater Lake Park HQ | 6400 ft |
30" |
54" |
53" |
91" |
114" |
150" |
129" |
147" |
168" |
— |
— |
— |
| Lassen Chalet | 6700 ft |
— |
14" |
12" |
47" |
84" |
97" |
72" |
93" |
152" |
— |
— |
— |
| Useful Information and Notes |
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• |
Some of the sites have completely missing seasons of data within their period of record:
1942-1946, 1953-58, and 1974-75 for Mount Baker Ski Area; 1945-46 and 1948-50 for Stevens Pass;
1951-52 for Snoqualmie Pass; 1976-77 for Mission Ridge; 1918-19 and 1949-50 for Mount Rainier Paradise;
1925-26, 1928-29, and 1942-46 for Crater Lake. All of the sites have various other missing values, especially
early and late season, but most sites generally have 85-95% of possible data values within their period of
record. Hurricane Ridge is missing a large fraction of its data points, but no entire seasons.
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| • | Examples of Really Huge Snow Seasons: |
1916-17, 1926-27, 1932-33, 1949-50, 1955-56, 1970-71, 1971-72, 1973-74, 1996-97, 1998-99 |
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| • | Examples of Very Poor Snow Seasons: |
1929-30, 1933-34, 1940-41, 1941-42, 1962-63, 1976-77, 1980-81, 1991-92, 2000-2001, 2004-2005 |
| • | Some Weird or Unusual Snow Seasons: |
1930-31, 1944-45, 1975-76, 1989-90, 2002-2003 |
| • |
The "Change Mode" and "Update Graph" buttons are identical in function, use either one interchangeably.
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| Plotting Program Version History |
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1.0 |
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05 Feb 2005 |
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First online release. Plots multiple sites for a single season. NWAC data file has 5591 snowdepth values
at 11 sites back to 1926-27. |
| 1.1 | 05 Feb 2005 |
Added ENSO status display, based on NOAA Climate Prediction Center list of ENSO years. |
| 1.2 | 06 Feb 2005 | Calculates and displays average / maximum / minimum values. |
| 1.3 | 06 Feb 2005 | Added new plotting mode: single site, multiple seasons at once. |
| 1.4 | 08 Feb 2005 |
Updated NWAC data file (using NCDC COOP data) to add 140 missing values and fix several erroneous values. |
| 1.5 | 08 Feb 2005 |
Added Crater Lake to the list of sites, and extended Paradise data back to 1916-17.
There are now 6785 snowdepth values in the data file. |
| 1.6 | 24 Feb 2005 |
Added Whistler Mountain to the list of sites. There are now 7117 snowdepth values in the data file. |
| 1.7 | 11 Apr 2005 |
Added Lassen Chalet to the list of sites. There are now 7373 snowdepth values in the data file. |
| Copyright Notice |
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Although the data used on this page is within the public domain, the plotting program (including the code
and interface) and its output (the generated graphs in GIF format) are ©2005 by Amar Andalkar. Permission
is hereby granted for limited non-commercial use of these graphs either online or in non-profit newsletters, but
you must obtain permission from me via email (see contact info) prior to any
commercial use, including but not limited to publication online or in newspapers, magazines, or books.
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Data on this page originally provided by
Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center, supplemented by data from the
National Climatic Data Center,
Environment Canada National Climate Archive,
and Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Thanks to Garth Ferber for providing the complete NWAC historical data set.
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