Northern San Juan

Snowpack

Susan Hale · Apr 15, 2013 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Temperatures were mild but winds were strong today - with visibly intense gusts at ridge-crests near and above TL. Gust were in 40's 50's. Skies had a sickly pallor caused by light snowfall mixed with airborne dust.

Snowpack

We remained below treeline: Today's accumulations added up to roughly 2" of wind-driven snow that was the consistency and color of a light unbleached flour. Underneath was the previous day's 8"-12" that has already settled to about 5"-6" of moist snowpack. Unprotected areas contained a thin melt freeze layer within yesterday's snow that developed during a brief period of sunshine. Sandwiched below that is the more pronounced dust layer that arrived with the onset of yesterday's storm. Currently all these layers are well bonded and with mild temperatures prevailing at this below-TL elevation, we don't expect problems other than wet activity once we see an extended warmup. > No avalanches observed today but vis was limited.