Northern San Juan
SnowpackJeff Davis · Dec 3, 2023 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Light snow (S-1) Northwest wind estimated 10-20mph with stronger gusts.
Snowpack
This storm overloaded the early-season snowpack. Since Friday, forecasters measured 20.5" of snow, equaling 1.1" SWE at the Red Mountian Pass study plot. The new snow fell on a shallow and faceted snowpack. Snowpack tests highlighted a failure between the fresh snow and the Thanksgiving day storm. Prior to Friday, the weather was prime faceting, conditions with warm days after cold nights and the Thanksgiving storm had faceted. Larger depth hore and facets sit near the ground. An interesting thing of note is, Extended Column and Compression tests produced easy and low end of moderate test results. At the same time, a Propagation saw test was less sensitive with a result of 55/100 end, likely due to the soft nature of the new snow, which was fist hard.