Hello skiers and snowboarders,
We should all be stoked – La Niña is back. La Niña loves to deliver NW snowfall.
Hope you had a wonderful summer, but as the days cool it’s time to start thinking about snow and your ski season ahead. So sorry, no more 80°+ days for this year.
Right now, it looks like a snowy ski season throughout the Northwest for 2024-25. The reason is a developing La Niña pattern in the tropical Pacific, as cooler ocean water replaces the warmth of the recent El Niño, which didn’t help us much last season.
La Niña often means near to above normal snowfall for the Northwest, but you never know how it will come in, what month or months will be the best? It's a weak La Niña, but the snow signal is the same as a strong La Niña.
La Niña affects our winter storm track, and more often than not aims the storms at us. The best example of La Niña’s magic for the NW is the 1998-99 La Niña with world record snow at Mt Baker of 1,140” for the season total. Big snow definitely happens in the NW with La Niña. Also, the entire Pacific Northwest is usually favored by the La Niña pattern, including Inland NW, like 49 Degrees & Silver Mountain – get ready my friends! Expect generous mountain snowfall. But like every season, there can be short-term variations even during a La Niña season, like dry spells and warm spells.
The good news is there are no persistent blocking high-pressure zones to cut us off from storms, for now. The weather pattern is progressive with highs and lows moving right along, mainly to our north, for now – but that’s normal. The fall weather is slowly ramping up with a mix of cooler, partly sunny days, an occasional light rain day (like Wed) and a slight fall chill in the mornings. Typically, by mid to late October (15th-22nd) we see an uptick in storm frequency and strength for the Northwest. I will watch for that to show up.
Because La Niña is an active pattern for the Northwest, it does suggest early season snowfall covering the mid-upper slopes, for a good potential start. But lately, with background slight warming from climate change, adequate early snow is more elusive. Still, I am optimistic, because not every storm is warmer. A couple of well-placed storms and bingo, the slopes are open. Snowmaking and good mountain management helps too.
As always, there are no guarantees. Every winter there are warm spells with temporary high snow levels produced by atmospheric rivers (Pineapple Express type). La Niña is a general seasonal forecast not a day-by-day or weekly forecast – that is where the Powder Alert can help guide you to your best days.
So, stay tuned. I’ll have another update, with more updates leading up to the opening of the season, which is usually Thanksgiving to mid-December.
Also, we’ll have more Powder Poobah Zoom meetings this fall and through winter. The Zooms were very fun and well attended last year with dozens, and sometimes more than a hundred people. Many of your ski/snow questions were answered.
Carry on….
Your humble servant
The Grand Poobah of Powder
aka – larry schick - meteorologist in charge
P.S. Make sure you subscribe to get the news first!
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