April SWE—Trends Towards SWEET

The April SWE looks mighty fine on this north facing aspect. Photo: THR

The inexorable shift in seasons is upon us. For snow sliders, spring is no fool’s gold. More predictable snowpacks, the ability to travel on fast refreeze in the early hours and top out, with perfect timing, for a multi-thousand foot descent of corn snow make spring, perhaps, the best time of year for making turns. Thus, it is time for a SWE update.

Whether you experienced a late start to winter in the home range or bopped from place to place, chasing good snow, a solid winter eventually arrived. Throughout our first season publishing The High Route, we’ve kept an eye on SWE (snow water equivalent). The more SWE, as the season evolves, the better the turn-making and the longer the ski/ride season extends. We hurled past the spring solstice last month. And now, almost mid-April, we are at peak SWE for some parts of North America. Meaning the snowpack may be diminishing. Of course, the vagaries of daily, weekly weather, albedo, and melting rate can bump max-SWE early or later. We prefer later.

The very general trend in the northern portions of the Lower 48 and portions of Canada are the colors we associate with the color wheel’s more alarmist and cautionary aspects: yellows and oranges. The northern swath of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and portions of Wyoming, southern BC, and Alberta are below (and maybe even way below) the percent median 1991-2020. The truth is, in some subbasins, the % below normal is significant enough that the snow sliding season may come to an earlier end than desired.

The general SWE trends in the West.

On the other hand, some regional zones should offer plenty of fine spring skiing and the opportunity, if the stars align, to link together a sought-after traverse. With that noted, we present early April SWE.