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Observation: Big Water

Observation Date
12/14/2015
Observer Name
Fred
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » Big Water
Location Name or Route
Mill D Reynolds to Big Water gulch
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Light snowfall most of the day adding another inch or so to the 6-8 inches that fell this morning. A far cry from the 13" that was sitting on my driveway this morning.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
7"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Amazing I dug a hand pit and there was new snow sitting on an ice crust which was sitting on a fine bed of facets. However very little cracking and no large collapes were whitnessed.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Normal Caution
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments

So it appeared that the new snow did not add enough weight to tip thing over the edge today. That said I was in fairly mild terrain. Also there is still not that much snow on the ground up Mill D. I did measure a few places with a total of 30" but the more common depth is 20".

Settlement cones were observed later in the day.

Seems like danger rating is very dependent on terrain choice. I would suspect problems could be found on steeper terrain.

Any problem encountered could have large consequences with this much new snow.

Today's Observed Danger Rating
High
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates