When will all the snow melt from the White Mountains?

2015-05-30 17:17:55.000 – Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

With the passing of Memorial Day we can say that the summer season has unofficially begun. After the brutally cold and snowy winter we had this year it is nice to see the sea of green leaves surrounding the summit again. It’s even better to see the colorful flowers of the alpine garden starting bloom. The down side to all this (at least for skiers) is that all the snow that has coated Mount Washington and the adjacent White Mountains, since last December, is now rapidly melting away. While many of us have retired our skies for the year, some skier enthusiasts are still making the trek up into the higher elevations with their skis in tow to try and get a few more runs in.

A question that is often asked of us here at the observatory is “When will the last snow be melted for the season?” The answer we normally have to give is simply “It differs every year.”

The answer to that question is hard, if not impossible to answer due to a variety of factors that can speed up or delay the melting process. But that doesn’t stop us from trying to make an educated guess. Since it is hard for us to see down into the surrounding ravines, we normally just try and guess when the last day of a visible snow patch on Mount Jefferson will be. Without further ado, here are our guesses for this year in the table below.

Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist