SNOW!? - No Foolin'...

[accadacca]

Who else got white stuff? I have had my A/C on in the car and nearly in the house the last few days. Major WTF. :ne_nau:

http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae91/accadacca1/973e1c15.jpg

[akavalun]

We got it in Cedar :cry1:

[DOSS]

Oh we got snow.. but AC already? really? there are these cool things called windows that when you open them let in the nice upper 60's weather so you don't have to turn on the AC :)

[Pelon1]

I feel your pain, we got down into the high 50's last night.:cold::cold:LOL

[powderglut]

http://www.bogley.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=43131&stc=1&d=1301841231http://www.bogley.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=43132&stc=1&d=1301841231
We got a little left around here in Steamboat. It's dumping right now.
Yesterday it was sunny and 60.

[accadacca]

Another...it's dumping!

http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae91/accadacca1/979f2f7b.jpg

[accadacca]

http://www.bogley.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=43131&stc=1&d=1301841231http://www.bogley.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=43132&stc=1&d=1301841231
We got a little left around here in Steamboat. It's dumping right now.
Yesterday it was sunny and 60.

Whoah!!

[powderglut]

We're so looking forward to our trip To Capitol Reef and the formations down HRV rd in two weeks.
Need to see other colors than white! Must wear shorts!! OH YAY!!!

[ilanimaka]

It blows my mind that it was mid 70's yesterday afternoon and then this last night.

[greyhair biker]

I'm not even going to break the camera out for this one:angryfire: I am so tired of the snow. Back down to below freezing this morning, only an inch of the white and it's a good thing I'm working m,t,w,th this week so it can DRY OUT AND WARM UP AGAIN!:haha:

[dbaxter]

I think I'd trade my allergies for your snow. I don't think I've ever had them this bad! :cry1:NOTHING seems to help...

[Scott Card]

About 8 inches at my house. I WANT SPRING....

[Dr. Nebz]

About 6" at my house, 16" at the Bird this morning. Riding was so good today. Winter is still hanging out in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Looks like after Tues, it is going to snow up there all week into next Monday. Guess I can put my sandals back in the closet for a bit eh? :crazy:

[americanhero]

we had 8 inches last week.
A total of 106 inches this winter so far....

[powderglut]

Sunday's afternoon session was perfect. No one around and about 12". Looks like the overall is about 15" on top. Tree skiing should be epic this AM.:skiing:
My shovel said 7" or 8" around the house. The price of living in the mountains. Wah! :cry1:

[jdgibney]

After almost everything had melted, we got a nice heavy/wet 8 inches on Friday morning (April Fool's!)

43155
A photo I snapped looking for weather features for our paper

[accadacca]

After almost everything had melted, we got a nice heavy/wet 8 inches on Friday morning (April Fool's!)

43155
A photo I snapped looking for weather features for our paper
Nice! :lol8:

[erial]

no snow here

43156

[blueeyes]

What beautiful little flowers! And I don't mean the tulips. :mrgreen:

[accadacca]

And it's back in northern Utah. I have about the same amount this morning and I hear more is on the way.

[blueeyes]

We don't have snow here just lots of rain. However yesterday it was blowing so hard that it about knocked my grill over!!! Rolled it to the edge of the patio and some how when the one wheel went over it managed to stay up right. That grill is not a light weight. I had just bought new outdoor chairs and they were blown around the yard. Crazy wind.

Have fun with the snow!

[Rented mule]

It was 84 the other day in Sunny St. George. I turned on the AC because my black interior in my black painted car got hot! My wife wanted instant relief.
I used the AC. Besides, I heard we should run the AC every so often to keep the seals ok? Not a mechanic. does it matter to run it once a month
Or is that a myth? help? gearheads, motorheads?

Great post! I like the flower shop sign hehe

[tanya]

What a precious spring photo!!!!!!



It ALWAYS snows here about Easter. It teases us with warm Spring-like Weather .. than bam!

I will be thinking of you all while I spend 3 weeks in the Hawaiian Islands. :haha:

[accadacca]

I will be thinking of you all while I spend 3 weeks in the Hawaiian Islands. :haha:
Pix please. :naughty:

[tanya]

Probably not even taking a camera. Just going to have fun. :nod:

[accadacca]

Probably not even taking a camera. Just going to have fun. :nod:
That's just not right! The Bogley photo police will be ready to hand out a citation. :haha:

[oldno7]

We have 8" of snow on the ground and still snowing.

[Win]

Weather was wild yesterday. Drove out thru Zion to Page, went thru near white outs to sun and back to more snow in Zion. I have visitors here and they got to see Zion at its most beautiful but I think they would have preferred the 80s.

Win

[JP]

90's here today

[accadacca]

34 degrees in South Jordan with snow falling and it's starting to cover my lawn. :cold:

[Dr. Nebz]

Snowbird hit 690" for the season today. That breaks the 83-84 record which was 688". We are sitting on 190" base and it is the end of April. Here is the press release:

http://www.snowbird.com/about/presscenter/pressrelease.php?release=385

I had a crazy fun day today up there I'll post up in da Captains Log when I finish editing the video.

[bbennett]

Snowbird hit 690" for the season today. That breaks the 83-84 record which was 688". We are sitting on 190" base and it is the end of April. Here is the press release:

http://www.snowbird.com/about/presscenter/pressrelease.php?release=385

I had a crazy fun day today up there I'll post up in da Captains Log when I finish editing the video.

I remember back in '93 (I think), I skied at Snowbird on the 4th of july and went jet skiing that evening. I think that's when my love affair with Utah began.

[Scott P]

Snowbird hit 690" for the season today. That breaks the 83-84 record which was 688". We are sitting on 190" base and it is the end of April. Here is the press release:


I actually checked into this. The claim is quite misleading. This years reading (690) was taken at mid-mountain while the 83-84 figures were taken at Snowbird Village (I have not been able to dig up the mid mountain readings for 83-84). Mid mountain always has more snow. Unforntunately, Snowbird Village historical readings are hard to find this year.

By way of comparison, the town of Alta (at the guard station) recieved 846.8 and 808.5 inches of snow in the 1982-1983 and 1983-1984 season. Mid mountain readings (which are always considered unofficial) approached 1000 inches. At the guard station, the current seasonal snowfall stands at 494.7 inches, but unfortunately a few days data is missing, so the total is likely higher.

Here is a comparison between mid mountain and the base of the mountain for this year (since figures for both the town of Alta and mid-mountain are available this year [I can't find any Snowbird data for Snowbird Village]) :

Current mid mountain snow-depth at Alta is 201". Current snow-depth at the town of Alta is 159".
Current mid mountain snow total at Alta is 701". Current seasonal total at the town of Alta (as mentioned) is 497" (but likely higher since a few days data is missing).

The above demostrates why the "record" is misleading since it compares values of the base of the mountain (1983-1984) at Snowbird to values at mid-mountain (2010-2011) at Snowbird. It is misleading to call it a record, but in a way the figures are still correct. It's just that they are comparing apples and oranges.

[Scott Card]

So my question is with the state at 168 % snow pack are you saying that it is no big deal and the weather guys are hyping this runoff potential?

Right now the Virgin is at 196% of normal. Provo River and and Weber/Ogden are at 186 and 187%, respectively, and another cold snow making storm coming in on Friday. Seems to me it could get nuts if it heats up quickly and some rain at high elevations is added to the mix. What say ye?

[Dr. Nebz]

I actually checked into this. The claim is quite misleading. This years reading (690) was taken at mid-mountain while the 83-84 figures were taken at Snowbird Village (I have not been able to dig up the mid mountain readings for 83-84). Mid mountain always has more snow. Unforntunately, Snowbird Village historical readings are hard to find this year.

By way of comparison, the town of Alta (at the guard station) recieved 846.8 and 808.5 inches of snow in the 1982-1983 and 1983-1984 season. Mid mountain readings (which are always considered unofficial) approached 1000 inches. At the guard station, the current seasonal snowfall stands at 494.7 inches, but unfortunately a few days data is missing, so the total is likely higher.

Here is a comparison between mid mountain and the base of the mountain for this year (since figures for both the town of Alta and mid-mountain are available this year ) :

Current mid mountain snow-depth at Alta is 201". Current snow-depth at the town of Alta is 159".
Current mid mountain snow total at Alta is 701". Current seasonal total at the town of Alta (as mentioned) is 497" (but likely higher since a few days data is missing).

The above demostrates why the "record" is misleading since it compares values of the base of the mountain (1983-1984) at Snowbird to values at mid-mountain (2010-2011) at Snowbird. It is misleading to call it a record, but in a way the figures are still correct. It's just that they are comparing apples and oranges.

Snowbird measures from the Gad II plot. So that is the top of Gad II. Which is not Mid- Mountain.

I guess Dan Pope, Meteorologist for KSL must be lying to the public with the record totals in a season for Alta and Snowbird then.

Take a look at his April 26th PM weather cast for yourself- Click Here (http://videos.ksl.com/video/widget/13871877.mp4)

You claimed in another thread that Alta had received some crazy total of like 1000 inches of snow during operating season up there.


Actually, it's in the mid-800's, but that's for the town of Alta (base) and at the official weather station. Mid-mountain gets a lot more snow, but isn't an official weather station. Mid mountain readings (which as mentioned are not official weather stations) have approached 1000 inches on occasion

[I]"The world record (http://classic.mountainzone.com/news/99/bakerrecord.html) for the most snow in one year is now held by Mount Baker (http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/peaks/baker.htm) (elevation: 10,775 feet / 3,285 meters) in Washington State, USA. The Mount Baker Ski Area reported 1,140 inches (95 feet) / 2,896 cm (29 meters) of snowfall for the 1998-99 season."

You are sadly mistaken. Alta has never even come close to the World Record Snowfall that Mt Baker has the claim to fame for. Sorry Scott, I tend to believe a Meteorologist over you. You give no reliable sources. That snowfall history link you posted in not accurate nor is it accredited. And I am sure Mr. Pope has better access to historical snowfall totals then you do.

I will tell you this, I have never ever seen the mountain with this kind of coverage. I was dropping lines today off Baldy that a month ago were cliffs and they are buried completely. And no one but the UAC has talked about the Jan 8th rain at 11,000 ft that turned the whole mountain into a glacier. and now we nearly 400" on top of that. It is gonna take a while to melt out up there. I say at least late June lift service if not a July 4th closing day. We are gonna have flooding, it is that simple. What goes up, must come down.

[Scott P]

I guess Dan Pope, Meteorologist for KSL must be lying to the public with the record totals in a season for Alta and Snowbird then.

I didn't say that he (or anyone else) was lying. I said that the record was misleading since they were taken at different locations. Neither of readings are wrong, but since they were taken at different locations/elevations, comparing them isn't "fair" for use of a better word. That doesn't mean that the snowfall amounts have been unimpressive.

It was a comment/observation from a weather buff (nerd, freak, whatever) and wasn't mean to discredit you, Dan Pope or anyone else.


You claimed in another thread that Alta had received some crazy total of like 1000 inches of snow during operating season up there.



That is true. I also said that those were unofficial readings, just as the all mid-mountain (this is the term the ski-resorts use, not me, it means that the readings were taken somewhere between base and summit). See below to verify that the ski resort is the one using the term "mid-mountain":

http://www.snowbird.com/ski_board/snowreport.php (http://www.snowbird.com/ski_board/snowreport.php)


I also gave you the information of what the official readings at the official weather stations were as well. Let's look at this from a logical standpoint.


From a logical standpoint, if the official snowfall readings at the Alta Guard Station which is around 8700 feet were 846.8 and 808.5 for the 1982-1983 and 1983-1984 seasons, then it seems logical that more snow would have fallen at higher elevations than the guard station and that higher non-official readings could be recorded at higher elevations. Since you mention Dan Pope, in his own book, he gives an average snowfall at the summit of Snowbird (Hidden Peak) at 634" for November-April season (no annual figures are given for Snowbird) [see pg. 19, Utah's Weather and Climate]. In the same book, Dan Pope gives the average snowfall of 518.8" for the Alta Guard Station. Even if you assume that the average snowfall for the summit of Snowbird is 0 for May through October), and assuming that Dan Pope's book is correct and using his information, would it be safe to assume that the difference in snowfall between the Alta Guard Station and the summit of Snowbird is at least 115" greater than those near the base of the mountain? Similarly, at "mid mountain" rather than summit, Dan Popes book gives a difference of 139" of snow between the base of Snowbird and "mid mountain", but unfortunately the unofficial records, only averages are given) If that is true, and taking the 846.8 official reading for the season*, would it really be unbelievable that some of the higher elevation unofficial readings (such as mid mountain and mountain summits) got pretty close to 1000? Although they are unofficial, they do seem at least somewhat credible from a logical standpoint.


*One must be very careful about comparing seasonal values. Some of the ski resorts (Snowbird included in recent years) count a "seasonal" total as only the November through April season. Seasonal totals in the NCDC et al are July through June. Yearly totals are January through December. This can be quite confusing when trying to compare. For example, the greatest "season" at Alta Guard Station for 1983-1984 using the November-April method is 743.5" vs. the July-June "season" method the NCDC uses which makes the figure for the same year 808.5. (as an example).



"The world record (http://classic.mountainzone.com/news/99/bakerrecord.html) for the most snow in one year is now held by Mount Baker (http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/peaks/baker.htm) (elevation: 10,775 feet / 3,285 meters) in Washington State, USA. The Mount Baker Ski Area reported 1,140 inches (95 feet) / 2,896 cm (29 meters) of snowfall for the 1998-99 season."



I know what the official record is, my friend. I also know that there have been many unofficial estimates that have exceeded this in both the Southern Alps of New Zealand and the Fairweather Range in Alaska to name a few places. Closer to Mt. Baker, it is probable that parts of the Olympic Mountains also in Washington also get more snow. The above quote gives the elevation of Mt. Baker, but it is interesting to mention that the record is actually from less than half way up the mountain (interestingly, the slopes 4000-9000 in the Cascades get the most snow).

To use a more local example of how unofficial records can exceed official ones, are you aware that the official record snow depth for Utah, is only 179"? It was on April 5 1958 at the official weather station at Alta. However, this has been exceeded many times at elevation higher than the official weather station, including right now as well. Higher on the slopes of both Alta and Snowbird right now are both measuring greater snow depths than 179" and have several other times in the past (I've seen it at least twice reach 211"). Unofficial seasonal (PS, I didn't say "operational season" as you indicate) readings at Alta (in the mountains above town) have approached 1000 inches, just as unofficial readings have eclipsed the 179” official record snow depth on several occasions (including this year). Even though they are probably accurate, the current ski resort snow depths will (unfortunately) not be counted in the official records since they aren't official weather stations. So far this year, in Utah the highest snow depth at an official weather station is 159" at the town of Alta. Obviously, higher elevations in the surrounding mountains have more snow than this (as the ski reports are indicating). I think it would be nice (as I assume you do too) if the snow-depths/data recorded at the ski resorts could be recorded as official readings and in the national database. The snow has certainly has been (and is now) deeper than 179" at some of those locations.


You are sadly mistaken. Alta has never even come close to the World Record Snowfall that Mt Baker has the claim to fame for. Sorry Scott, I tend to believe a Meteorologist over you.


You give no reliable sources. That snowfall history link you posted in not accurate nor is it accredited.

Actually, my link came from the Western Regional Climate Center and it's associations the National Climatic Data Center and the State Climate Office. The National Climatic Data Center is the center that holds all official weather records for the United States and most sources you will find out there containing official data are accredited to this location (rather than vice-versa). Please see below where I got my information (home page):

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/index.html (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/index.html)

On the other thread I posted a more direct link to Alta for your convenience, but it comes from the above. Like any weather database, there still are some days with missing data (which can cause snowfall to be under exaggerated in some years) and some errors, but overall, it's about the best/most comprehensive source out there (but unfortunately only includes official weather stations).

As mentioned above, be careful, because typically “seasonal totals” extracted by many the ski resorts usually only include November–April totals, while the NCDC database includes the entire 12 month period.



And I am sure Mr. Pope has better access to historical snowfall totals then you do.


He might, but he might not. As mentioned, most ski resort totals (unfortunately) are not considered official readings. The non-official readings are much harder to get, especially before the internet. I had to extract them all by hand in 1993 for the years 1976-1988 at Snowbird. After that they are easier to find/obtain, but I would think that Mr. Pope could get any of them too if he wanted.

Also, I respect Mr. Pope. I have all his publications that were published while I was living in Utah. I have his entire Utah Weather Guide brochure memorized. I have met the guy and have shook his hands and chatted with him. I have all the publications/books from Mark Eubank, Clayton Brough, Gayen Ashcroft, etc, etc and have most of them memorized as well.

Please allow me to share some of my climate/weather collection. This is but a small part; I will only add a few photos.

I have thousands and thousands of hand written pages of weather data, all of it in the first photo extracted by hand (including all the info I could get my hands on about the Wasatch Mountains). I have data hand collected from every SNOTEL site, ski resort, official and non-official weather station in the state up to when I moved from Utah. In later years, information was much easier to obtain from libraries and databases, so it became much easier. Please see the first two photos below (notice how warn, reread, reworked they are):

http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/712226.JPG (http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/712226.JPG)

http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/712229.JPG (http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/712229.JPG)


The third photo is just some of what I have from various library sources and databases:


http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/712227.JPG (http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/712227.JPG)

After the internet, most of it became obsolete, but since I have so much data on hard to find sources that aren’t on the internet, it is one of my treasures (as are the mountain statistics also compiled). I used such information to compile such informational charts as below:


http://www.summitpost.org/interesting-weather-statistics-for-us-mountain-summits/171585

The above may not look so impressive, but other than the data NCDC, it was extremely hard to obtain. Try to find anything on Google for example (besides this page) on the average monthly weather statistics for places like the summit of Mount Rainier, for example.

SNOTEL temperatures are now much easier to obtain than in the past, but are in metric and averages have to be calculated all out by hand. Before they were available on line, you used to have to extract each daily value, throw out the flyers, average them all by month and convert to degrees F. Here is one of my spreadsheets (I have compiled 18267 excel files in 490 folders of similar data from various sources) pulled off random showing the compiled data for the Lake Fork SNOTEL site located high in the Uinta Mountains:

http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/712230.bmp (http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/712230.bmp)

Photo #4 are some of my many, many weather books. I threw the Utah ones in there with some other ones to show that on the Utah books, I have read them so much that I have worn the covers off. I also included one of the brochures from Mr. Pope whom you mentioned. Notice how worn out it is and before I got that one, I got other yellow ones and blue ones as well which were also worn out (I don’t use the brochure anymore because I memorized it long ago). The other big book with the cover worn off lower left is Dan Pope’s book, Utah’s Weather and Climate. Not only is the cover worn off, but the book is taped together with packaging tape because I’ve read it so many times.

http://www.summitpost.org/images/medium/712228.JPG (http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/712228.JPG)

Open up the book and you can see updates (such as records that were broken at a later date) and corrections (there are a few misprints) I have penciled or penned in over the years and you can see how worn the pages are. See photo #5 for a page of the book randomly opened up to. I got his book at the book presentation at the library right when it was published in 1996 and met and talked with the man.

http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/712231.JPG

I hardly want to discredit Dan Pope. I have read with facination, his publications over and over again. I would be thrilled if I could sit down with him for a day or two and discuss the weather or show him my weather and climate collection. In fact, it would be cool if someone could email Dan Pope and see if he would join in this Bogley conversation.

I only show the above photos/examples to point out that I am a real weather nerd and my post was for interest/conversation rather than to argue. I always like to talk about the weather and this was an interesting topic. Most people just roll their eyes when I can drive through any town or city in Utah and quote from memory the record high and low temperatures for each month, average precip, snowfall, etc for each city in the state. I find it fascinating. My only point was that I didn’t think that it was fair to call the Snowbird 2010-2011 snowfall statistics as a real record since the data from several of the earilier heavy snow years was taken at a lower elevation. I guess I don't understand why you don't think that it's a valid point. I never tried to discredit anyone, nor do I claim that I am the #1 source of weather data on Bogley. Government agencies, universities, etc. have a much larger database that I could ever hope to have.


As far as the flooding or skiing into July goes, I don't doubt that at all. Over here, we've already been flooding and we haven't even got warm yet. Especially if it stays cool until the end of May and then warms up, there is going to be some serious flooding in much of Utah, Colorado and other states. We're already having a few mudslides and the SNOTEL site east of here did set a snowdepth record (but fell short of the water content record).

Snowpack figures are very impressive in most of Utah and Colorado:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=134181&nid=149

ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/snow/watershed/daily/co_update_snow.pdf

I just didn't think the Snowbird record was misleading since it compared data taken in different locations/elevations. If the data was taken at the same (or at least very close) location/elevation (like they are at the SNOTEL stations where the snowpack is calculated in the links above) for the last 40 years (period of time the record was claimed to exceed), then it would hold more validity IMHO.

[Dr. Nebz]

Wow, pretty impressive weather data collection you have. :2thumbs: And I like your post. I disagree with some earlier comments, but respect that you really are trying to correlate data, which is how we determine things in science.

Scott, I don't want to argue with you either, And few people on this board spend more days a year up Little Cottonwood Canyon year round than I do. The riding has been unbelievable, and the entrances to some shots on the mountain up there are places I have never been able to go because of rocks or cliffs. They are really buried so deep like I have never seen!

Thanks for sharing your collection. I love that old book with Mark Eubank on the cover! I am a family friend of the Eubanks, I used to hang out with his daughter Carrie when I was in high school. Probably the most accurate weather man Utah has ever had. His son Kevin does a pretty good job too.

I am guessing you are in Colorado? Keeps us updated on the flooding over there. Hope you have a great spring and summer Scott.

[accadacca]

Impressive Scott. You are a weather geek! Fun information to read. :popcorn:

[Scott P]

but respect that you really are trying to correlate data, which is how we determine things in science.


Yes, I was just speaking of correlated data. It's kind of hard to correlate since it seems that in some years data was collected at a non-specific "Snowbird Village", some years it was collected at elevation 9380 with no location given (mid-Gad is at ~9215), and now apparently at the top of Gad II at 9840 feet. I was just wanted to bring out the point that the location where the data was taken apparently wasn't consistent (if you ever can get ahold of the data/location where each year, I would really like to have it), so it is hard to tell if there really is more snow there than there has been in 40 years. No doubt the snowfall has still been extremely impressive, regardess of where it was taken.


They are really buried so deep like I have never seen!

Here too.

Anyway, I haven't skied Snowbird since 1998 (another good snow year). I remember around I first started skiing, a lot of people threw a fit when Snowbird raised their ticket prices to $27. :haha: I couldn't afford that and by the time I was in college would always end up at (the inferior) Park West because it was $5 a day if you brought in a can of chili for the food bank. The deepest snow I ever saw at the Bird was 1993. They had a 211" base the day I was there.


Thanks for sharing your collection. I love that old book with Mark Eubank on the cover! I am a family friend of the Eubanks, I used to hang out with his daughter Carrie when I was in high school. Probably the most accurate weather man Utah has ever had. His son Kevin does a pretty good job too.


Indeed and his book is amazingly accurate. I wish there was another updated one like it. Mark Eubank did an excellent job of weeding out the bad data (which is still on record at the NCDC, I wish they would weed it out like Mark Eubank did). It is the most accurate weather book I have seen. In the entire book, I know of only one very small error (the -42F at Green River was actually recorded in January 1937 rather than January 1947 as printed in the book), which is extremely impressive considering the amount of work that must have went into collecting the data. It was all done without any modern database and is a work of art. The book is also a treasure because it tells the history of each weather station and where the location has been or has been moved to.


I am guessing you are in Colorado? Keeps us updated on the flooding over there.

Yes; Craig Colorado. We've been getting a lot of snow too, but east of the mountains, Colorado has been very dry. Check this out (botton narrative):

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/include/showProduct.php?product=summary.txt

They haven't got hardly any snow this winter/spring over there and we've been getting buried. They only have gotten 21.8 inches of snow the entire season so far (30 year average is 60.8 for the season).

Anyway, you will be interested to know that the last three days have broken a daily maximum snow depth record at the Alta station. This year still probably won't break the all time seasonal depth, but several daily depth records will probably be broken in the next few days (after May 7, the daily depth record will jump to 155 and then 163 the next days so the snow will have to stay very deep until then to break the daily recs). A lot of people keep mentioning and comparing this year to 1983 and it will be interesting to follow both years side by side. After May 16, all the daily depth records minus June 23-25 at Alta Guard are held by the year 1983 until July 5 (the day the snow melted in the sun in 1983). It will be interesting and easy to compare them side by side since the weather station is still at the same elevation (it's only moved ~60 feet elevation over many, many decades).

Brighton (station name Silver Lake Brighton) has a longer and more accurate record (less missing data) than Alta does. Unfortunately, it will be harder to compare side by side on a daily basis since the data usually isn't posted on a daily basis like it is for the Alta station. Although the record at Brighton is longer, more accurate and more comprehensive, it seems that the station (which has only moved 40 feet elevation in 95 years) is more than often ignored because it gets less snow than the Alta station.

[accadacca]

Unbelievable...

[Deuce]

Yep, Murray, Utah April 30th 2011.... Out front, dropped the level into the yard....5"...would guess an inch of that was grass, which the snow was on top of....

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/EJB21/KaneChop1.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/EJB21/KaneChop2.jpg
http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i397/EJB21/KaneChop3.jpg