PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – It’s technically spring, but it still feels like winter in the Cascades.
With more than 15.5 feet of surrounding snow, Timberline Lodge currently maintains the third deepest snowpack in the Pacific Northwest. According to data recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s automated snow monitoring sites, Timberline Lodge has the deepest snowpack in the state with 186.1 inches of piled snow.
Oregon’s deepest snow pile is less than an inch shy of tying the second snowiest location in the Pacific Northwest: The Paradise Ranger Station in Mount Rainier National Park, which has an accumulated snowpack of 187 inches. The Swift Creek area of Mount St. Helens takes the top spot for the deepest recorded snowpack in the region, NOAA data shows, with 18 feet of compressed annual snowfall.
The abundance of healthy snowpacks around the Western U.S. have helped to drastically ease drought conditions in recent weeks. The effects have been especially noticeable in Oregon this week, where Crook County was removed from the “exceptional” drought stage for the first time in almost two years.
“Out West, widespread improvements were made on the map including areas of California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and New Mexico in response to excellent snowpack conditions across many of the drainage basins in the region,” the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report states.
Top 5 snowpack locations in Oregon:
- Mt Hood: 186.1 inches
- Upper McKenzie River in the Willamette National Forest: 178 inches
- Crater Lake: 171.9 inches
- Taylor Butte, Willamette National Forest: 134 inches
- Little Meadows south of Detroit Lake: 132 inches