Snow in the Cottonwood Canyons

We have had some annoying April/May snows the past few days, but it is melting off in the afternoons almost as fast as it comes down. However, this week has been the perfect example of the difference between the snow at Park City and the snow over in Little Cottonwood Canyon, about 5 miles away.



In the last four days, Snowbird has had 7 feet of snow. They have been getting the lake effect snows of the Great Salt Lake, just like you hear about with NY and the Great Lakes. Snowbird's peaks are about 3500 feet higher than where we live, which has made an important temperature difference. The moist air gets pushed up the canyon, rising from 4,000 feet to 10,000+ feet. The temperature drop forces all the moisture out as snow.

Great for the water supply. Great for the only ski resort still open. And mostly great that we didn't have anything like that on our side of the Wasatch range.