Stevens Pass gets earliest snowfall in more than a decade, but don’t pack your skis yet

A short burst of snow Tuesday on Stevens Pass may have skiers and snowboarders daydreaming of carving the slopes, but slow down.

The pass recorded 2 inches on Oct. 2, marking the earliest snowfall in at least 14 years, according to data from the Washington State Department of Transportation. Going back to 2004, the pass has seen just four seasons of snowfall starting in the first half of October. In each of the past three such instances, total snowfall for the season was over 400 inches, the data shows.

Cooling temperatures this week, not just in the mountain passes but also at lower elevations around Washington, are marking a dramatic shift following an unusually warm and dry summer that helped fuel one of the state’s worst wildfire seasons. On the other hand, meteorologists are picking up on signs of a developing El Nino in the Pacific Ocean, a cyclical climate phase that usually brings warmer winters to the Northwest.

An expectation of a heavy snow season “is not something I would hang my hat on,” Chris Burke, a Seattle-based National Weather Service meteorologist, said over the phone. “We’ve had plenty of early snowfalls before and it hasn’t meant anything.”

Tuesday’s snowfall was due to an unusual gust of cold northern air coming from Alaska and Canada, said meteorologist Dustin Guy, at the weather service. A lot of the weather systems the Northwest sees in the fall and winter “take more of a trajectory from the water in the Pacific,” he added.

If an El Nino does take hold, it means higher elevations will likely see more rain than snow, Burke said.

September snowfalls have been recorded at Stevens Pass, particularly from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s, according to data reviewed by Burke. But snow accumulations for those years weren’t available, he said.

Up at Stevens Pass, ski-resort spokesman Marc Riddell said opening the ski area requires consistent snowfall to build a base of at least 10 to 20 inches. The resort targets opening around mid- to late November, he said.

For now, snow enthusiasts will have to wait and see. By Wednesday, the 2 inches of snow that had everyone buzzing at Stevens Pass had already melted.