Olympic National Park
Snowpack shrinking in summer is the norm. But Pelto noted that the heat wave dramatically sped up the process. In the North Cascades, snowpack was actually relatively healthy for late June. But the heat wave changed the equation.
“Normally, July 4, the places are totally still covered,” Pelto said. “And then during July, depending on which place you are, you get a little bit of ice exposure. This just sped up that process by two weeks, essentially. We went from one where we had more snow than usual by a few days to where, all of a sudden, we jump to mid-July conditions by the first of July, just in those few days.”
The same jump step is visible in other mountain ranges in the region, too. That includes the peaks of Olympic National Park. The snow disappeared in the high peaks while locations in the normally temperate rainforest that grace the west side of the park cracked triple digits and easily set all-time records. Elsewhere, shellfish that populate the region’s waterways cooked en masse.
