Snowpack

Observation: Parleys Canyon

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Snowpack

A widespread surface hoar layer was observed in Parley Canyon this AM. While most of the snow surface is comprised of small facted grains, large surface hoar grains were observed starting at 6,800 feet. Grain size increased with elevation. It seem likely that the valley stratus layer from Sunday, 1/10 was likely the moisture source for the event.. Jim Steenburg wrote a nice blog post explaining the atmospheric conditions from Sunday that can be found here. It seem's likely that this created a "bath tub" layer of surface hoar that is not found at upper elevations in the Wasatch but can't confirm.