STEVENS PASS — Snowpack levels shrunk considerably over the past week in the Cascades due to record warm weather, sparking avalanche concerns at Stevens Pass and other outdoor hotspots.
Last Wednesday, snowpack was 84 inches at Stevens Pass. As of this week, it was 66 inches — about 84% normal for snowpack levels in March.
Around Mount Baker, at about 4,200 feet of elevation in the ski area, there was 95 inches of snow. Last week, there was 125 inches.
Temperatures climbed into the 70s in many parts of Snohomish County over the weekend, triggering snowmelt in the mountains.
“We’ll still have to make up some in April,” meteorologist Jacob DeFlitch said, of snowpack levels in Western Washington.
Snowpack usually peaks in March or April, said Robert Hahn, an avalanche meteorologist with the Northwest Avalanche Center, in a previous interview with The Daily Herald.
“We will be building snowpack,” Hahn said in February. “It’s just — are we building it as fast as we typically do at this time of year? My gut is that we’ll build it a little more slowly.”
As of Wednesday, the Northwest Avalanche Center issued a “considerable” avalanche danger warning for Stevens Pass, meaning current conditions could cause natural or human-triggered avalanches.
Several locals and forecasters observed avalanche activity at Stevens Pass over the weekend and early this week, according to the avalanche center.
The center also has a “moderate” avalanche danger warning for a large portion of Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, though avalanches are less likely to occur there than Stevens Pass.
“The frequency of large and very large dangerous avalanches is slowly decreasing,” wrote avalanche forecaster Irene Henninger in the report. “But temperatures haven’t cooled enough for us to let our guard down.”
At Stevens Pass, temperatures were expected to drop from 44 degrees Wednesday to 35 degrees by Sunday. There are good chances of snow from Thursday through Sunday.
Ta’Leah Van Sistine: 425-339-3460; taleah.vansistine@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @TaLeahRoseV.
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