Weather inversion(?) in winter at rainier

[Stefan]

This question intrigued me about the best days at Rainier. I am no scientist. Here is what I did, I took the SNOTEL data from Paradise ONLY since 1982 and found the daily precipitation from Nov 22 to March 8th every year. I then accumulated that daily precipitation for each of the years. For example I accumulated the precipitation for January 8th from 1982 to 2007. I then graphed that accumulation to show which days had the least amount of accumulation of the years and tried to see if I saw "weather windows". Here is my conclusion: I am wrong in my original estimation of the third week of January being the best month. The best time is actually February 25 to March 1 for the least amount of accumulation. For second best it appears the time from February 2 to February 14th appears somewhat consistently lower. A better analysis would take more snotel data from other snotel stations around Mt. Rainier, but I don't want to spend the time.

[Stefan]

And then this graphs shows the accumulated number of days it has precipitated since 1982 for each of the days in each of the months from Nov 22 to March 8. Once again the data shows the best period is February 25 to March 1 with that first two weeks in February being somewhat okay, but definitely second in the choice.

[snowball]

Here is my conclusion: I am wrong in my original estimation of the third week of January being the best month. The best time is actually February 25 to March 1 for the least amount of accumulation. For second best it appears the time from February 2 to February 14th appears somewhat consistently lower. A better analysis would take more snotel data from other snotel stations around Mt. Rainier, but I don't want to spend the time.

 

 

Dude... nice work! pretty interesting analysis. much appreciated.

[DPS]

The best time is actually February 25 to March 1 for the least amount of accumulation. For second best it appears the time from February 2 to February 14th appears somewhat consistently lower.

I already told you that.

 

Many years a ridge of high pressure builds over the region giving us good weather right around the President's Day weekend.

Edited February 2, 2008 by danielpatricksmith