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Forecast for the Abajos Area Mountains

Mark Staples
Issued by Mark Staples on
Saturday morning, March 23, 2024
It's been close to a week since 2' of snow containing 3.0" of snow water equivalent (SWE) fell in the Abajo/Blue Mountains and the snowpack has largely adjusted to the load. This means that human triggered avalanches are unlikely but not impossible. Cloudy weather should limit heating from the sun and limit the threat of any wet snow avalanches.
The main threat possibly today and more likely on Sunday will be increased winds from the south that will be forming soft slabs of wind drifted snow. The danger of this avalanche problem will the rising.
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Weather and Snow
Weather
This weekend: Snow should fall Saturday night and winds from the south will be increasing on Saturday. Temperatures on Saturday will remain in the upper 30s or low 40s F, but they will be much colder on Sunday.
Unsettled weather continues through next week with a brief break midweek.
General Conditions:
March conditions are in full effect and you can find a little bit of everything out there right now including varying degrees of breakable sun crust that turn sloppy late in the day, and soft, settled powder on sheltered, northerly aspects. The sun is high in the sky however, and low angle northerly aspects are now open to sun exposure.
NWS forecast for the Abajo Mountains.
Snow totals and temps at Buckboard Flat (8924')
Snow totals and temps at Camp Jackson (8858')
General Announcements
This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.