Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>I observed a collapse and shooting cracks on a north aspect NTL. Breaking trail was occasionally quite punchy, with weak, low density snow underneath the medium density new snow.</p>
1) Snow profile in Coyote Chute
2) Shooting cracks on Julie's Back side
3) Instabilities within the new snow
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Test results showed consistent suddent failures and propagating results on the new snow/ old snow interface about 30 cm down. I observed shooting cracks on a steeper north aspect that also failed at this interface/layer. The 1-2" of snow from earlier in the week is resting on the FEB thaw crust and may have faceted during the mini cold snap. Did not investigate other aspects so unsure of the distribution. Faceted snow lower in the snowprofile was not reactive but would guess that as the new snow load increases and wind moves snow, these layers will become reactive. </p> <p>Winds seem to have relaxed a bit, but were moving snow ATL. I could see plenty of drifting in the trees on the Laurel Hwy as well. </p>
New snow has been drifted by southerly winds. Storm totals as of mid day seem to hover around 1' with 1.5" of SWE measured in the field.