Observation: Lower Days

Widespread surface hoar with very well developed plates (some > 25mm). Temperature gradients were steep in this shallow lower elevation snowpack right now. We observed faceting occurring primarily in the storm snow from 11/8-11/10 but also evident in other layer. One interesting observation to note was the ice forms observed in the 35-19cm layer, likely the result of rain on snow from the prefrontal period of the most recent storm.

CTN and ECTX both yielded no signs of instability currently. However, we tried a modified stuffblock test with an estimated 2in SWE additional load over a 30x30cm isolated column and the surface hoar collapsed at first loading. Does not take much an imagination to see how reactive this layer will be if the next loading event occurs in the absence of strong winds.