Snow Recap

Over the last 2 days Main Lodge has already seen 7 inches of snow! That's more than double what we saw all of April in just the first 2 days of the month of May! The summit is now at 894 inches... a mere 6 inches away from an absolutely astounding 900 inches of snow for the season... Will we reach it? I believe there's a very good chance we will. We just need the next round of snow to come through just as strong as this round did. 

We've now gotten more snow in May than we have the last 3 seasons. 2019, which was a very good year with above average snowfall delivered 32 inches of snow in May! That is the record for May. In May we average only 8 inches and the median is only 6 inches. We are going to blow past both the average and median to give us yet another above average snowfall month. Only April and October for this season will be below average snowfall months. That's the kind of season you need to have extremely above average snowfall. We are approaching if not already breached 200% of our average snowfall this season.. 

More Snow on the Way... 

The low continues to spin off the coast of California, so the chances for snow continue and increase again by tonight into Thursday morning. 

Wednesday we'll see partly sunny skies with potential snow flurries in the afternoon. Temps will be cool in the mid to low 30's. Wind should be lighter as well. 

In the middle of the night on Wednesday into Thursday morning we should see our best chance for more significant snowfall accumulations. We could see another 2 - 5 inches at Main Lodge and upwards of 6 inches over the summit by Friday morning. 

Thursday will be a cold and snow showery day with temps in the 20's and snow showers throughout the day. 

Friday we could see more similar weather to Wednesday with partly sunny skies and warmer temps in the 30's. Afternoon snow showers with thunder are definitely possible. Winds should continue to remain light. 

The trend continues for Saturday to have pop up snow showers in the late morning and afternoon. They may deliver more accumulations or they may not. At this time I'm not expecting more than an inch between Friday and Saturday if it doesn't melt out between measurements.

Dry Out Sunday 

We should finally dry out and warm up slightly on Sunday. We could see 40 degree temps as Spring begins it's return. That trend could continue into the 2nd week of May.. .

  

As of now the long ranger forecast shows drier weather starting the 2nd week of May. It may continue into the late Spring/Summer season. Highs should warm slightly each day through the next week with 50's at the base possible by Friday, the 12th. 

While the pattern doesn't show a strong ridge over the region all of next week there also isn't a trough hanging off the coast spinning up moisture. So it does appear as though we'll be done with the snow at least for now after this round. 

Will the end of May bring anymore surprises? You can always bet on the Spring being hard to predict and notoriously finnicky when it comes to forecasting late May/early June snowfall. I have backpacked many times around Memorial Day weekend as it snowed in the mountains. So I'm certainly not ruling it out.. I'll keep you posted as we continue into the final month of meteorological Spring! 

Till the next one... Mike out.