Dear Tom,
Where does the most snow fall in the United States and Canada?
Michael Roberts
Dear Michael,
The greatest accumulations of snow occur where a steady supply of moisture and sufficiently cool air, driven by prevailing winds, impinge upon mountain ranges that force the air upward. The Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coastal ranges of North America, standing approximately perpendicular to the prevailing westerlies of the mid and high latitudes, satisfy those criteria perfectly. After traversing several thousand miles of ocean, Pacific air, cool and laden with water vapor, sweeps into the highlands of western North America–and it snows and snows and snows. Annual snow totals exceed 500 inches in the mountains from Alaska south into California. Washington’s Mt. Baker averages 645 inches annually, and occasionally logs in excess of 1,000 inches.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
