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Larry’s Powder Alert – March 9, 2014

Weather Update

Looks like a fun ski week ahead on the slopes, with a good dose sunshine,  by Tuesday and beyond.

Monday will see some lingering snow (1-3″) in the Cascades. That will be a nice improvement; with the lower snow level of 3500 ft. The new snowfall will coat the rain-soak snowpack of Saturday, with a nice veneer of new snow.

High pressure will mean a mainly dry and partly sunny pattern until Friday, when a weak system will give a chance of light snow and a SL of 3500ft. Expect some clearing Saturday, then another weak system on next Sunday

Last Saturday was not pretty, with a good atmospheric river (ARs), extending toward Hawaii – but pointed at us with high snow levels (7500ft) and warm moist air, plus  (2-4″) of rain for the Cascades. The real nasty ARs have 2-3 times as much rain – this was an AR lite. This is a weather pattern we see much more often in November, but ARs do occur all year round  – even in the summer. Remember a few of those wet Fourth of July’s in the past? They were summer ARs.

Surprisingly, we don’t loose that much snow when it rains on a deep snowpack. The rain falling on snow gets absorbed into the deep snowpack and melts a little snow around the edges. It mainly consolidates the pack and we loose snow depth as the snow becomes denser, but not a lot gets melted. I saw one study which showed it takes 10″ of rain at 40 degrees to melt 1 foot of fresh snow – that is a lot of rain – far more than we had this weekend. Also, I have seen, where heavy rain is falling so hard on the pack, it can’t absorb and runs down the top of the pack, draining off in small channels called rilles.

Larry Schick SnorkleYou can see by the picture, I was prepared for the saturated aqua ski session on Saturday. My signature green OR jacket with Gore-Tex is keeping me warm & dry. I have the mask and snorkel to complete the outfit. Ya must have the right equipment for the day. But I did forget my fins.

Your Grand Poobah

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