Where’s the Snow–in the Northwest

While southern Minnesota has had a relatively warm winter with little snow cover, things are quite different in the Pacific Northwest. Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation patterns have been in the La Niña pattern. While El Niño features warmer than normal ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, La Niña features cooler than normal temperatures.La Niña tends to bring cool, wet winters to places like Washington State and British Columbia. Mount Baker ski area, near Bellingham, Washington reports a current snow depth of 240 inches (20 feet). Whistler has had 348 inches of snow so far. Meanwhile, Vancouver had 26 days with measurable precipitation in January–mostly rain.