Maritime vs. Continental Snowpack : Facts & Information : SummitPost

Background

Most backcountry skiers, ski mountaineers and mountaineers are well aware of more stable snowpack in maritime mountain ranges relative to continental ranges. Below is a table showing the percent of days with a forecasted low avalanche danger on most aspects above treeline in the Front Range in Colorado versus the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and Nevada. The sources of data for the Front Range and the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains are the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and the Sierra Avalanche Center, respectively. Data shown are only from the 2006-2007 season as earlier data are not accessible to the public. Data from the 2007-2008 season will be added in April of 2008.

Data

	Front Range	Central Sierra Nevada Mountains
December 2006	0%	45%
January 2007	29%	83%
February 2007	0%	41%
March 2007	10%	71%
April 2007	35%	63%
Mean ± Standard Deviation, p = 0.0013	15% ± 16%	61% ± 18%

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