Winter is here to stay!

2009-12-07 23:17:27.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist

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Back in October, it seemed like winter was getting an early start. On October 13 and 14 we measured a total of 8.3 inches of snow. The crew that tried to come up the mountain on the 14th for shift change discovered drifts several feet deep on the Auto Road, forcing us to use the Cog Railway for transportation. By the end of October, that phantom start to winter seemed so far in the past. November proved to be an extremely warm month (see my comment from a couple days ago) and when my shift left the mountain on November 25, there wasn’t a single bit of snow to be found anywhere on the summit.

Luckily winter has finally set in during the past week or so, and looks to be here to stay. After a warm storm with rain a few days ago, we have seen temperatures in the teens and single digits since late Friday. Including what snow has fallen so far today, we have measured over 10 inches since Saturday. In fact, we have now collected the precipitation can 10 times in a row. That’s 10, 6 hour periods in a row where we have had at least some snowfall. I will be collecting the can coming up here at 12:30 a.m., and that will make 11.

A storm is brewing for Wednesday. It looks like it could a pretty significant storm and, at this time, it appears that precipitation will fall as mainly snow on the summits. Behind that storm, it gets wicked cold. Temperatures by this coming weekend will drop below zero for the first time this season. It’s going to get windy too with gusts likely exceeding the century mark by late Thursday and into Friday.

The other shift will be able to tell you what ends up happening since we will be leaving on Wednesday. It seems that the other shift has been getting all the fun weather these days. Hopefully when I return to the mountain on December 30 after a vacation (I’m going skiing in Utah and Wyoming and then off to see my dad in California), things will flip around and we will get to see some high winds and cold temperatures!

Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist