Quick report
- Red Flags
- Rapid Warming
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Rapid warming caused a number of snow snails especially around rock bands and on most steep, sun exposed slopes.</p>
The graph tells the story of spring. Wild temperature variations due to solar heating combined with scattered snow showers.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>As usual in spring after a cold snow storm, the main problem is wet activity when the snow suddenly turns damp and then wet. It all turned to mank today in the intense greenhousing in the afternoon except for high elevation north. The steep slopes were producing roller balls and small point release sluffs especially near rocks and worse at lower elevations. Generally, they were small, soft and not particularly dangerous unless you were in high consequence terrain. Watch for stronger heating tomorrow.</p> <p>As usual in spring, forecasting is always a series of if-then statements. If we get another day of warm weather with thin mountaintop level clouds, we will get greenhousing again and you will need to watch for more wet activity. If not, then....forget about it. Spring weather is always a crap shoot at best and when snow dances with weather, the weather always leads.</p>
Hard to say how much of the snow was new but all the snow since Sunday added up to 1.5 - 2 feet in several layers. All is well bonded right now. The dramatic rise in temperature during the day with greenhousing heat from the thin, slowly-drifting mountaintop clouds turned the snow to mashed potatoes in an instant especially on southerly aspects and you can still find some scraps of dry, settled powder on upper elevation north faces but you gotta get it quick in spring.