It's interesting that WDOT is having such problems keeping the passes open this year (Stevens is closed today again as well for avalanche control).

I remember my first year of ski school at the Summit (1972). By mid-February the snow banks in the parking lot were taller than the buses. So the snowfall we are having now is not unusual, just uncommon, especially given the weather over the last decade or so. Below is where we are this year throughout the PNW for snow. We're way above normal for the season so far, but Baker still has a ways to go to break it's last la Nina record-setting year in 1998-99.

CLIMATOLOGICAL SNOWDEPTH INFORMATION
NORTHWEST WEATHER AND AVALANCHE CENTER SEATTLE WASHINGTON
DAY 1 MONTH 2 YEAR 2008

DATA IN INCHES, -99 DENOTES MISSING DATA

CURRENT CLIMATE PER CENT LAST THRU 2007 THRU 2007
DEPTH AVERAGE OF NORMAL YEAR MAX/YEAR MIN/YEAR

HURRICANE 129 78 165 95 162/1999 10/2005
MT BAKER 175 124 141 150 234/1933 17/1981
STEVENS 135 87 155 95 152/1964 10/1981
SNOQUALMIE 130 79 165 82 154/1964 8/1977
STAMPEDE 133 87 153 89 228/1946 0/2005
MISSION 51 40 128 47 67/2006 8/1976
CRYSTAL 97 59 164 77 112/1999 6/1977
PARADISE 169 132 128 125 240/1969 27/1977
WHITE PASS 110 52 212 60 88/1997 0/2005
TIMBERLINE 177 118 150 115 238/2002 10/1977
MEADOWS 173 97 178 98 184/1974 9/1977