Snow Depths Reach 6m On Two Continents, 5m on Third

Snow depths have been building across the northern hemisphere in the run up to meteorological spring.

Typically northern hemisphere snow bases grow and grow from September to March before peaking at the start of spring when the annual thaw begins to slowly reduce the snow pack through spring and summer.

In recent years the deepest depths have struggled to reach 4m or 5m at times – last season saw a very deep snowbase in North America but not to much in Asia and Europe for example.

2017-18 is seeing more uniformity across the three northern hemisphere continents.  Depths in Europe passed the 6m (20 feet) mark at several Swiss ski areas in January – very unusually deep bases.

Japan in Asia too has had a snowy winter and here bases passed the 5m mark earlier in February.

It’s been more of a mixed picture in North America with snowy weather in some areas but warm dry conditions in others, however here too the traditionally snowiest part of the continent – its north western corner, have seen bases pass the 6m (20 feet) mark in the past 7 days.

So which resorts have the deepest snowpacks in 2018?

Engelberg in Switzerland passed the 6m (20 feet) mark early in the year and was briefly joined by fellow Swiss resort Crans Montana whilst the Kaunteretal Glacier in Austria has reached 595cm.

Engelberg’s current base of 620cm was, until very recently, the world’s deepest.

In North America Mt Baker in Washington State, which holds the record for the biggest ever recorded  seasonal snow fall total, passed through the 6m snow depth mark last week and has just overtaken Engelberg to claim the deepest base in the world at present at 6.22m.  It’s had 666 inches (nearly 17 metres) of snowfall so far this season.

Finally in Asia, Niseko has had more than 12 metres of snowfall this season, double the total at this point a year ago.  Base depths went through 5m a week or so back and are currently at 5.2m at Grand Hirafu.