The Snow Season Begins

 The image from the Crystal Mountain cam this afternoon said it all:  substantial snow had fallen over and to the east of the Cascade crest yesterday and this morning.

Another way to appreciate the change is to look at the snow water equivalent (water content of the snowpack) over the past two days.   At 11 PM Saturday, there was essentially no snow over western Washington State, except for the tops of major volcanic peaks

By 11 PM Sunday night, light now covered the higher elevation of the Cascades and Olympics, as well as the eastern slopes of the Cascades.

So much snow fell on Blewett Pass (at 4000 ft), south of Leavenworth, that they had to close the road (US 97) for a while!

The fact that cold easterly winds (from the east) were forced to rise on the eastern side of the Cascades, producing clouds and precipitation on that side, was made obvious by the visible satellite image this morning (below).  For a change, western Washington was in the lee rain shadow!

Temperatures have substantially dropped over the mountains during the past several days.  

Over the past week, temperatures at Stampede Pass (in the central Cascades) rose to around 60°F on October 7-8.   This morning it was around freezing!

At Camp Muir, located around 10,000 ft,  the temperatures this morning were in the teens:

If you want to enjoy outdoor activity, I would suggest you do it during the next few days.  

The weather will go downhill on Friday and over the weekend.