60F at one's head and 32F at one's toes

Yesterday, I skied up to Stampede Pass with a group of weather-oriented folks to visit the repaired National Weather Service observing site.   It was amazingly warm, with yesterdays air temperature at that location reaching 61F between 3 and 4 PM (see plot).  At the same time, the snow was melting at the surface, so we know the temperature of the snow surface:  32F.     So roughly a 30F difference between my head and toes!

But the contrasts don't end there.  The temperature dropped to the mid-30s by 3 AM today--12 hours later.  And that was accompanied by snow!   So sunny and hot to cold/windy/snow a few hours later....you got to love our weather here.

Here is the National Weather Service ASOS observing site, high on a platform above the snow.

On the left is a rain gauge, a freezing rain sensor, and a laser ceilometer.

 On the right, a precipitation type identifier, a temperature/humidity sensor, and a visibility sensor.

Stampede Pass is the home of many power line swaths, which afford some wonderful views, although the snap, crackle, and pops of the power lines can be disconcerting.

The sky yesterday was full of high cirrus/cirrostratus associated with an approaching front.   But there were also many lenticular (lens-shaped) mountain wave clouds.  Here is a sample.

Lenticular clouds often form downstream of our mountains when a weather system approaches.  First, the approaching system is associated with increasing relative humidity, so that the additional lift forced by the mountains produces clouds.  Second, wind perpendicular to the mountains increasse, which is good for business of the waves produced by the mountains.

We were very fortunate to be accompanied by Randy Cryer, a long-term observer (and resident) at Stampede Pass, who told us about the history, geology, and meteorology of the pass, and particularly the large impact of the early trains.  I told him that he should write a book about Stampede Pass.

Virgil G. Bogue discovered the pass on March 19, 1881.   The northern Pacific railroad would go through the pass, and as work on the project proceeded, Mr. Bogue sent out a new foreman to speed-up the work.  The men had enough and quit. The response: "No work, no eat," and the men stampeded for the valley and therein came the name.

While we were at the pass we noticed a number of general aviation aircraft flying across the area.  Randy told us that the weather station was established in 1943, when several aircraft crashed as they crossed the Cascades.   Some of you may remember that when the weather station was closed for a year in 1990, several planes crashed with some fatalities.  It is good that the weather station, with its excellent observing equipment, is back online.