First Snow of the Season Dusts Parts of Washington Cascades

Jon Erdman
Published: September 3,2015

The season's first snow dusts Crystal Mountain, Washington, on September 2, 2015.
(CrystalMt/Twitter)

The first snow of the 2015-2016 season dusted parts of the Washington Cascades, and snow also blanketed the high country of southern British Columbia on Wednesday, whetting the pre-season appetites of skiers and snowboarders.
A dusting of snow covered parts of the ground at the top of Summit House (elevation 6,873 feet) at Crystal Mountain in Washington state. About 486 inches of snow falls in an average year here, according to the Crystal Mountain website. Less than half of that total fell last season (234 inches), however.
Whistler Blackcomb, a ski resort about 80 miles northeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, also saw a light blanket of snow Wednesday, though this wasn't the first snow of the season there.

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Whistler Blackcomb ✔ @WhistlerBlckcmb

Oh hello, beautiful! Yep that's snow at the Peak. Check out our webcams: http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/mountain-info/snow-report#mountain-cams … #WBGoBeyond

2:23 PM - 2 Sep 2015

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Late Wednesday night, snow fell over the higher peaks in Glacier National Park, according to the National Weather Service in Missoula, Montana.

Jet stream pattern responsible for high-mountain snow in Washington state and British Columbia, September 2, 2015.

A sharp dip in the polar jet stream has carved southward into the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada and is responsible for the change in elevations at which snow falls.
Snow was expected to reach the ground at elevations as low as 5,500-6,000 feet in the Washington Cascades and southern British Columbia, enough to bring an inch or so of snow to the high peaks, but above most pass levels in Washington state.
In heavier passing showers, snow could fall over slightly lower elevations for a brief time, as one observer in Washington state noted Wednesday.

Snow may also fall over the high peaks of far northern California, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento. Labor Day weekend flakes are possible in the higher elevations of southwest Montana and northwest Wyoming around Yellowstone National Park.
This pattern change has been welcomed in a region plagued by drought, wildfires and one of the hottest summers on record.
(MORE: Extremes of Summer 2015 | Largest Wildfire in Washington History)
Washington's Paradise Ranger Station at Mt. Rainier National Park, just southwest of Crystal Mountain, averages 1.5 inches of September snow, and some snow cover lingers at elevations between 5,000 and 8,000 feet into mid July.
The Paradise Ranger Station averages 659 inches, or almost 55 feet, of snow a year.

MORE: Montana/Wyoming Summer Snow Photos (July 27, 2015)