The dataset below tells the whole story of the early season faceting and a heat crust that formed. It is comprised of two temperature sensors placed 2cm apart, one right below the snow surface and one 2cm below that.

A small snow storm put down around 8" of new snow Nov 2nd. During the following week that new snow was subjected to a significant temperature gradient and changed form from new precipitation particles to faceted crystals. You can see when the faceting was most pronounced. Any time the yellow bars are above the red line, a significant temperature gradient is present and faceting is occurring. While these significant gradients ranging from 5 to 9 C per 10cm (50-90C per meter) are not really all that large, they did occur when the mean snow temperature was around -5C which is relatively warm. With warmer temperatures, you do not need as large of a temperature gradient to get faceting as you do when temperatures are cold.

A heat crust also formed between Nov 4 and Nov 9. Looking at the chart below, you can see when the snow temperatures went to 0C during daytime hours on Nov 5, 6, 7 and 9. I believe these temperatures produced a heat crust that I found when I went to retrieve the sensors on the 12th. The snowpit diagram above was done on Nov 12. A trace of new snow had fallen on the heat crust. The upper temperature sensor was encased inside that heat crust with the lower sensor still below in the faceted snow.