Located at roughly 5500 ft, this melt-out day is about 1 week later than typical for the past 100 years (information from Mark Albright, UW Research Scientist). Here is an interesting table showing the mean melt-out dates by decade at Paradise Mt Rainier:
Decade Date No. of Years
----------------------
1910s 16 July 2*
1920s 10 July 9**
1930s 3 July 10
1940s 1 July 10
1950s 17 July 9**
1960s 5 July 10
1970s 21 July 10
1980s 10 July 10
1990s 15 July 10
2000s 10 July 10
2010s 16 July 8***
* 1917 and 1918, ** 1925 missing, 1950 missing, *** 2010-2017
As you can see, there is no real trend towards earlier melt-out, which would be a sign of global warming. That will come, but later in the century.
What about a much lower site? Such as Stevens Pass (about 4000 ft above sea level)
Mean melt-out dates by decade showing a trend towards later melt-out of the snowpack in recent years:
1980s: 30 May
1990s: 1 June
2000s: 2 June
2010s: 4 June (thru 2017)
Similar to Paradise, the snowpack is holding on later into the warm season.
The maintenance of our snowpack into the summer helps maintain our streamflow into the summer, which is good for fish and water resources. By the middle of the century we expect the situation to change as warming causes more of our precipitation to fall as rain in the mountains.
from Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog http://ift.tt/2u1eILI
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