Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
Photos: Wind patterns on the snow, the shallow, building wind crust that's sitting on loose, weak facets.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Weather forecast is for the southeasterly to southwesterly winds to continue for another 24 hours, with a slight increase in speeds tomorrow. Today's winds were finding some snow to transport, and starting to form shallow, small wind drifts. Drift size might be small, but the drifts will be sitting on weak, faceted snow so could be surprisingly sensitive. I was finding the drifts to be small, pockety and in erratic locations. Identifying their location could be tricky as they grow bigger and then are hidden beneath the new snow, and they'll be in unusual spots. </p> <p>I was finding widespread 3 - 4 inches of weak, near surface facets on the shady slopes, at most elevations. With cool temperatures and southerly winds, I don't think they will get destroyed. Instead, I'm thinking we may bury these NSF as a new persistent weak layer tomorrow/tomorrow night if we get the 3 to 6" of snow in the forecast. I saw only very small surface hoar in spots - much smaller and less widespread than what I saw and is being reported in the Ogden area mountains. </p> <p> </p> <p>On off-aspect (easterly?) I quickly looked at had a thin sun crust with fist hardness facets beneath.</p>