Front Range

Snowing 1cm to 2cm an hour with moderate winds primarily out of the Northwest

"Variable" is the word of the day. Wind slab and persistent slab are present, but limited to wind-loaded areas on the Northeast through Southeast aspects. Probing these terrain features reveals a variable snowpack 50cm to 150cm in depth. In these areas, the upper portion of the snowpack generally consists of well-bonded decomposing fragments sitting on top of a melt-freeze crust in various stages of decomposition, which in turn is sitting on top of a thick, pencil-hard wind slab sitting on top of the usual 10-20cm of basal facets. Stability tests indicate these slabs to be non-reactive. East-facing aspects with terrain features that are not conducive to wind loading hold 15cm to 50cm of weakly structured faceting snow. All other aspects near and above the treeline, meanwhile, hold little to no snow. Below treeline, the snowpack remains shallow and generally weakly structured, typically 30cm to 40cm deep and faceted from the surface to the ground. A minor collapse occurred in a small meadow below treeline, where remnants of a wind slab were sitting on top of a melt-freeze crust. However, these structures did not appear to be widespread.