Mt. Rainier is taking it for the team. For the Crystal Mountain team, that is.
In the past 24 hours, Paradise has seen twice the amount of moisture we have, and most of that has been rain. Yesterday, it snowed gloriously at the ski area, staying cold until happy hour. We picked up 7 inches of snow before the temperatures spiked. That’s when the wind shifted around and Mt. Rainier blocked us from the worst of the storm. Notice the first graph from Paradise. Between 1400 and 1900, it rained (see temperature fourth from left) nearly 1.5 inches. Then check the second graph from Crystal. It didn’t switch to rain until 1700 hours, after which we only picked up .4 inches of rain.
Date Time Temp Wind Speeds/Dir Hrly/24 Hr H2o
Paradise, Mt. Rainier:
12 12 400 40 22 36 275 .05 2.41
12 12 300 40 23 36 276 .07 2.36
12 12 200 41 23 38 271 .06 2.29
12 12 100 41 24 37 272 .06 2.23
12 12 0 41 24 37 269 .06 2.17
12 11 2300 40 20 43 271 .06 2.11
12 11 2200 39 14 23 260 .09 2.05
12 11 2100 39 18 30 268 .1 1.96
12 11 2000 37 18 26 268 .12 1.86
12 11 1900 36 19 30 265 .24 1.74
12 11 1800 35 17 26 264 .11 1.5
12 11 1700 33 13 26 266 .24 1.39
12 11 1600 33 5 11 247 .25 1.15
12 11 1500 32 2 7 121 .22 .9
12 11 1400 32 4 9 358 .26 .68
Crystal Mountain Ski Area:
12 12 400 37 41 68 241 .01 1.41
12 12 300 36 47 79 264 0 1.4
12 12 200 37 40 68 257 0 1.4
12 12 100 36 39 67 243 .03 1.4
12 12 0 36 41 72 234 .01 1.37
12 11 2300 37 45 73 254 0 1.36
12 11 2200 36 41 58 213 .01 1.36
12 11 2100 37 34 51 224 .05 1.35
12 11 2000 35 27 63 229 .08 1.3
12 11 1900 35 24 60 256 .05 1.22
12 11 1800 33 27 66 283 .11 1.17
12 11 1700 31 25 43 259 .14 1.06
12 11 1600 29 30 50 213 .13 .92
12 11 1500 25 25 42 168 .17 .79
12 11 1400 24 22 44 153 .19 .62
The news was even worse for the other ski areas that saw upwards of 4 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. It’s nice to know that Mt. Rainier is watching over us.
