Northern San Juan

Avalanche

Krista Beyer Jeff Davis · Jan 13, 2025 · Northern San Juan

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Weather

Calm weather has returned after a bump in winds and snowfall over the weekend. Stoke your wood stoves though unless you'd like an outrageous propane bill because the cold remains. Temperatures remained below 15 degrees at 11,000 ft throughout the day. Winds were 5-10 mph from the southwest. and a morning of blue sky was swallowed up by clouds mid-afternoon.

Snowpack

North and northeast slopes above treeline show the impact of recent northeast winds. They appear scoured and firm. Near treeline slopes visibly maintain soft snow on the same aspects. Southwest and southeast slopes have loaded from the same winds and small naturals can be seen. Many of these naturals appear to have broken in the recently drifted snow. Snow water equivalent (SWE) at nearby Red Mountain Pass SNOTEL site is 2.79 SWE since 12/25. The most recent load over the weekend was between .6 and .8 inches SWE.

Avalanche

Small natural D1 avalanches observed in recently drifted snow. Saw the debris of the avalanche remotely triggered yesterday, failed on weak December facets.