[puzzlr]

Thanks for all the photos and the informed speculations on the cause. This is fascinating!

[drm]

I remember seeing really deep sun cupping in the Sierra Nevada of my youth, like the 1980s. With the sun higher in the sky and far less cloud cover in the spring, I think the sun is the guilty party. So it's well named. So the sunny spring here this year got it started, and the Big Heat was the coup de grace. Like everybody is saying. I am a bit curious as to why we didn't see more localized flooding in late June. Maybe the ground was drier than usual and the larger creeks and rivers were also low and had more room to expand. Or maybe they did flow pretty hard, but we just didn't notice because we were all home hiding from the heat.

[coldrain108]

The view of Rainier from the McDonald's parking lot in Enumclaw was frightening. No snow to be seen.

[slabbyd]

In Bellingham temperatures were in low-mid 80's on the 6/21 and 6/22 then dropped for a few days before returning to mid-80s on 6/24 followed by mid-high 90's 6/26-6/28. That melt is all reflected in the following discharge data from the Middle Fork Nooksack (which drains Deming Glacier) Discharge raters appear somewhat normal until heatwave. During heatwave historical average is ~ 550 CFS. Actuals were ~1400 CFS. Considering that both snowmelt and ground water contributed to flow...lets swag it at 50/50.....typical discharge due to snowmelt went from 275 CFS to 1125 CFS. So an increase by a factor of ~4 from average. So you get something like an extra 20 days of normal melting during the abnormally warm period. (Thinking about it I'd guess ground water makes up a lot more discharge than snowmelt and that the actual factor is much greater x8+?). Afterwards discharge rates are below normal presumably due to a lack of snow to melt and ground water after our dry year.

[Brushbuffalo]

[drm]

Right, sun alone is not enough, or we would see them everywhere. You saw debris in the cups that was a likely contributing factor. I have seen them without visible debris - maybe some meltwater can feed the same process. slabbyd - okay, so we did just miss it. Maybe in order to get flooding down lower where everybody would see it requires earlier heat when there is even more snow.

[Brushbuffalo]

[williswall]

Aside from the interesting conditions you write about, grand kudos must go out for 81 climbs of Baker…extraordinary!

[Riverside Laker]

It could be some of the ice sublimated.

[Randito]

I've never seen the Interglacier so shriveled.

[Malachai Constant]

North Cascades Peaks in bad shape. Ruth mountain ropeless Route closed. Worse than it has been late September.

Challenger glacier has developed large holes to ground and Bergstrom has disappeared can only be traversed with ice climbing gear.

[Geezer]

I just saw A photo of Mt Shasta which is basically now just bare rock.

[olderthanIusedtobe]