Northern San Juan
SnowpackSusan Hale · Feb 17, 2013 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Day started off mostly cloudy but very mild (except for town inversions early morning). Temperatures at noon were 35-40 F. Winds on hwy were light SW/5-10 (mid teens at Wx Sta). All this gave way to mostly sunny skies by mid-afternoon and increasing SW winds (SW/20).
Snowpack
Snowpack in highway paths below TL showing signs of the multi-day stretch of sunny, windy weather: Increased settlement (old, previously buried crowns are more prominent); master stakes have dropped several inches; sagging evidence of creep along road cuts and surfaces are moist or alternately frozen on a variety of sunny aspects. By tonight all those surfaces will be frozen again. Found thick dusting of well developed RR grains on many of these surfaces (didn't look at each location). Wind smoothed surfaces were also seen in exposed areas - this thin wind-slab varies in thickness from <cm to 3-4 cm. All of this points toward poor bonding of incoming snow.