Mt. Baker May Break World Snowfall Record

Of all the snowcaps, Mt. Baker may be No. 1.

It has unofficially become the world’s most snowed upon peak, breaking a 27-year-old record for snowfall in a single season.

After 2 inches of snow fell Wednesday, the Mt. Baker Ski Area had accumulated 1,124 inches since Nov. 1, 1998--almost 94 feet, or about the height of a 10-story building.

The previous record, established in 1971-72 on nearby Mt. Rainier, was 1,122 1/2 inches.

“It was the slowest 2 inches of snow I’ve ever seen fall at Mt. Baker,” said spokeswoman Gwyn Howat, who spent Tuesday night at a lodge on the mountain so she could be there when it happened.

The record came as little surprise to ski center staff. In February, the mountain got so much snow they were forced to close the ski slopes for two days and to lengthen a 25-foot snow measuring stick that lay buried for days.

The center sold record numbers of season passes, used twice the usual amount of dynamite for avalanche control, and had to hire shovelers to help dig out chair lifts, Howat said.

The ski season on Mt. Baker closed May 2.

The record is unofficial until validated by the National Climate Extremes Committee--a process that could take several months, said Andy Horvitz, a climatologist at the National Weather Service’s Office of Meteorology in Silver Spring, Md.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration runs the climate extremes committee.

“We are working with the ski area to arrange a site visit, to find out how they measure the snow, get copies of data and snow removal records,” Horvitz said.

Experts are careful to define a record as only the greatest measured amount of snow.

“There’s always the recognition that there have got to be large areas in the Himalayas [with more snow], but there’s no one there to measure it,” said Mike Changery, head of the climate monitoring branch of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Mt. Baker’s thick mantle of snow comes courtesy of extremely wet coastal storms.