Industry News
The Western U.S. has been the recipient of some HUGE storms so far this winter. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has had the DEEPEST December in 40 years.
Winter officially started 5 days ago, which means there is a lot more snow to come this year. As the snow continues to fall, the powder hounds rejoice.
As the cold weather moves back into the West, it brings along with it lots of moisture, as the PNW is expected to get hit with another large storm tonight.
**listed snowfall totals come directly from each ski resorts’ upper mountain snowfall numbers as posted on their websites as of December 26th, 2016.
TOP 10 SNOWFALL TOTALS in NORTH AMERICA:
***
#1. Mt. Baker, WA = 275″
#2. Jackson Hole, WY = 238″
#2. Revelstoke, BC = 238″
#4. Timberline Lodge, OR = 235″
#5. Mt. Bachelor, OR = 215″
#6. Grand Targhee, Wydaho = 206″
#7. Whitewater, BC = 185″
#8. Mt. Hood Meadows, OR = 170″
#8. Brighton, UT = 170″
#10. Whistler, BC = 164″
A few more snowfall totals from some of our favorite ski resorts:
- Solitude, UT = 158″
- Powder Mountain, UT = 158″
- Kicking Horse, BC = 157″
- Snowbird, UT = 156″
- Mt Rose, NV = 153″
- Alta, UT = 152″
- Stevens Pass, WA = 142″
- Jay Peak, VT = 132″
- Fernie, BC = 122″
- Steamboat, CO = 121″
- Crystal Mountain, WA = 120″
Jackson Hole’s mid-mountain snowfall of 121 inches in December was 4th highest in 47 years of data, The record (highest total for any month) was 211 inches in December 1996. The upper mountain site quoted here and by the ski area did not come into existence until the Bridger Gondola was built in 1998. But it’s safe to say JHMR’s record snowfall (both month and season) occurred in 1996-97.
Snowfall from Mammoth’s ski patrol site is here: http://media-mammothresorts-com.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mmsa/patrol/pages/StormSummary/16-17StormSummary.htm
This is measured by patrol but as they have snow safety priorities after storms, the website is sometimes not updated for a few days after major new snow. Meanwhile the ski re website needs to be current and thus the number there can occasionally diverge from the patrol numbers.
Snowman has often noted that the upper mountain at Mammoth gets about 1/3 more snow than the patrol site. Since Canyon/Eagle get less snow than the Main Lodge area, the patrol site is usually a good overall representation of ski area snowfall. The more extreme divergence during this early season between the patrol site (90.5 inches) and the deep upper mountain snowpack is due to the couple of unusual storms with snow levels fluctuating above the patrol site.
Ski areas websites unfortunately lead to apples-and -oranges comparisons due to different start dates for measuring snow and inconsistent measuring locations. While most high snowfall areas measure mid-mountain, a few measure very high within their ski terrain.
I attempt to correct for these issues in my Season Progress Reports. Most recent report here: http://bestsnow.net/seas17.htm
The snow plot at Mammoth is at Main Lodge. The disparity vs. upper mountain snowpack is due to some warm storms that mostly rained at Main Lodge but were all snow higher up. There were about 3 feet extra snow in mid-October and probably an extra 3 feet in mid-December.
As the top of Mammoth is 11,000 feet and north facing, most of that snow preserves all season.
Some of the snow totals in this post include October snow that mostly melted out during the warm first half of November. Some of those October totals:
79 inches at Revelstoke
57 inches at Targhee
53 inches at Kicking Horse
52 inches at Jackson
37 inches at Whitewater
27 inches at Bachelor
Wolf Creek?? 400+ every year?
They are showing 149″ ytd
lol we have 150 inches up top at Mammoth and your reporting 104 inches of snow for the year… .
Thanks Snowman. We aren’t reporting anything. We’re just repeating the numbers that Mammoth is displaying on their website. Snowmaking maybe?
Mammoth, CA-150″
Thanks for this. Mammoth has a 150″ snowpack. They’ve seen 104″ of snowfall this year. http://www.mammothmountain.com/winter/mountain-information
Seymour 206″
Hemlock 178″
I love your website, thank you for posting. It helps me decide where to ski when I travel.
Thanks, Dick!
The numbers in the e-mail were more interesting:
“North American Ski Resorts With The Most Snowfall:
#1. Revelstoke, BC = 223″
#2. Jackson Hole, WY = 234″
#3. Timberline, OR = 232″
#4. Mt. Baker, WA = 200″
#5. Mt Bachelor, OR = 215″
#6. Grand Targhee, WY = 201″”
You made me look.