SEATTLE – As winter storms pound mountain passes across the Pacific Northwest, avalanche risk in the Cascades has risen sharply, with meteorologists at the Northwest Avalanche Center raising the warning to “high.”
Areas like Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass are particularly vulnerable, and with combined snow and wind.
Each winter, a small team of 11 scientists at NWAC is responsible for forecasting avalanche danger across these regions, including the Cascades, the Olympics, and Mount Hood. However, just weeks before the snow began to fall this year, there were serious concerns that this team would be reduced to only three meteorologists.…