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Observation: 10420

Observation Date
3/30/2014
Observer Name
Evelyn
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » 10420
Location Name or Route
10,420
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Moderate Snowfall
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Front finally arrived early afternoon, with a little thunder and a blast of grauple. Some large, up to 1/3" conical graulpe.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
3"
New Snow Density
High
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

Just a few inches so far of dense snow, on a variety of old snow surfaces.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Cracking just in wind drifts and below the upper ice crust. (Turning conditions on north nothing to complain about...) Even with low end snow numbers, winds may tip the balance.
Comments

Grauple early in storm. Could watch it rolling down steep slopes.

Cracking in new wind drifts. Sort of cakey texture.

Been a while since "poor structure" has been an issue, but I feel like we're developing a layered snowpack with the focus on northerly and easterly mid and upper elevation slopes. Hard to find a representative spot, as heat and sun crusts vary over such short distances, by aspect and by slope angle, but this spot below seemed to represent some of the issues we may need to deal with.

Two crusts - upper most recent from Friday/Saturday's sun and heat. The lower I think is from March 20-25, and includes the melted in dirt layer in places. Both crusts have weak snow beneath, CT 5 (below upper crust) and CT 15(below lower crust), ECT no results. Arrows point to weak snow below the crusts. Localized collapsing I was getting today was just below the upper crust. Snow more faceted beneath the lower crust in this spot, this could be the more persistent problem. Seems like both have the potential to be an issue with loading - wind drifted areas at the moment. Worth digging down, and checking them out, and being aware that they are very variable over very short distances. Slides may start to have the potential to break out deeper.

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