While Storms Ravage SoCal, Pacific Northwest High And Dry

Six winters ago, 95 feet of snow blanketed the Mt. Baker Ski Area in Washington state's North Cascades, the most snow ever recorded in one place in the United States.

This season, the snowboarding mecca of the Northwest opened late and closed in January after 3 inches of rain in 24 hours melted a meager snowpack. The ski area hadn't closed that early since 1976. It reopened after a Feb. 6 storm, but snow remains at less than a third of its average levels. "It's probably the worst ever," says Mt. Baker Ski Area General Manager Duncan Howat, who's been in the ski business 40 years.

While snow inundates the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges, this winter is shaping up as the most dismal in decades in the Northwest. Skiers, snowboarders and ski area operators suffer today, and low runoff come spring threatens fly-fishers and whitewater enthusiasts. Snowless hillsides could also increase fire hazards and lead to forest closures for hikers, campers and hunters this summer. "Summer stream flows are likely to be very low, and the pain will be widespread," says Scott Pattee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

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The low-snow spell extends across much of the Northwest and into Canada. Two of four areas on Oregon's Mt. Hood were closed, and six of the seven remaining Oregon ski spots are open despite subpar conditions. In Idaho, half the typical snowfall has fallen on the panhandle region. Customers at the Schweitzer and Silver Mountain ski areas can use only one-third of the runs."

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http://www.latimes.com/features/outdoors/la-os-nosnow22feb22,1,5805405.story