Nature Notes From Crater Lake
Volume 5, No. 1, July 1932
Crater Lake Winter
By Permanent Ranger C H. Simson
During the month of last October when
Venus was first covered with storm clouds of the season and announcing
the end of a perfect summer, soft fluffy snow flakes gave a general
impression that winter was here. This caused the cessation of all park
activities and a general preparation of the long winter months to
follow. With this storm a snow fall of 36" was registered. While to some
of us it seemed to be a heavy storm, little did we know what the ensuing
six months held in store for us.
Following this storm was a period of
Indian summer, perfect in every respect, which allowed sufficient time
for winter preparations. November was too soon to visit us with her grey
overcast skies and occasional snow. However, these early months were
busy ones and time went by quickly we hardly noticed the snow gradually
growing in depth after each storm. At the end of November the snow fall
registered 12' 3". With this we found additional tasks to perform and
time sped on.
December was still more liberal and
revealed a snowfall of 11' 9-1/2" giving a total of 24' .5". The snow
fall for October, November, and December was only three feet below the
whole season's snow fall of the previous year.
January found us in a turmoil
endeavoring to remove the snow from the roads and to keep the necessary
building open. Spending the night out in blizzards, blasting our way
through huge drifts and snow slides to make way for the snow plows
became common, and the banner month of the season soon passed, adding
15' 1/2" to our total. We became so used to great depths of snow that to
pass around the summer cottages and see nothing but mounds of snow or a
part of an upper window barely showing did not greatly impress us.
February was more quiet and tranquil
but cold as the alcohol dropped to 10 below zero. Continued low
temperatures modified storm conditions so that we had but 5' 9" of snow
fall in February. However, it was late in the month we learned that all
buildings would have to be cleared of snow and with many completely
buried this was quite a task.
March was all March is supposed to be,
storming most of the time and the 9' 2" snow fall for this month gave a
total of 54' to date which was twice the amount of the previous year.
April followed promising beautiful
weather, but surprised us with 7' 7" of more snow. Poor May struggled
through with only 3' 2" making a total snowfall for the winter of 64' 9"
the heaviest of record at Crater Lake.
