Snowpack

WMR

Cam JohnsonWhitefish Range
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Quick report

We returned to WMR to work on the weather station. The precip bucket is back up and running. The weather station shows 1.35 inches of SWE today (11/26). That was the remaining water in the bucket after unclogging debris. WMR did NOT receive a mega-dump today.

  • Almost 2 feet of new snow rests on a recent melt-freeze crust that formed during the atmospheric river. This snow is dry and skied quite well. 
  • We observed no signs of unstable snow and had no unstable results in snowpit tests.
  • We found the layer of buried surface about a foot off the ground. The snow at this layer is moist, and the surface hoar appears to be more broken and compressed than when I observed it in this location before the storm. 
  • Stomped and skied on a few short test slopes with no results. 
No signs of instability.

Weather

Air Temp
Below Freezing
Cloud Cover
obscured
Wind Loading
previous
Recent Snowfall
4
Snow Avail For Transport
moderate amounts

Cloud cover went from obscured to overcast. Cloud ceiling was at around 6700 for most of the day.

Snowpack

We dug a snowpit adjacent to one I dug before the storm.

NE aspect @ 6730: ECTX. HS=140cm. 40 cm of recent snow above the most recent melt-freeze crust. Found buried surface hoar about a foot of the ground. We didn't get it to propagate until we hit the shovel with extra hard force in a deep tap test. Snow was dry above the crust and moist below the crust.