Mountain Weather for Saturday, January 24th, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/24/2015

High pressure continues to strengthen its stranglehold on the central Rockies, and does not look to loosen its grip for the foreseeable future. A few disturbances may wiggle around the ridge, but should not produce much more than increased cloudiness for our area mountains. Winds and temperatures should remain fairly constant over the next several days. Light winds, cold nighttime temperatures and more mild days, especially above those valley inversions.

Today

High Temperature: 25-30
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5-10
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 30-35
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

Mountain Weather for Friday, January 23rd, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/23/2015

Valley inversions will strengthen with the high pressure building over the west coast today through the foreseeable future. Some weak shortwaves look to potentially begin to try and sneak over the ridge every few days bringing a flurry and increasing cloudiness, but overall, no significant storms within sight…enjoy the sun and work on those early spring goggle tans…

Today

High Temperature: 25-30
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NE
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5-10
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NE
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 0″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 25-30
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

Purple Mountain

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Paradise Divide Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/22/2015
NAME: Evan Ross
ASPECT: North East, East
ELEVATION: Above Tree Line



WEATHER: Few clouds, silly cold temps, Strong NNW winds at ridge lines above 12,500ft. Not a lot of snow available for transport on the Western sides of ridges lines but there was still blowing snow on summit ridge lines.

SNOWPACK: Didn’t find any new windslabs of concerning size on east and northeast aspects below ridgelines even with drifting snow today. Upper snowpack mainly consisted of 20cm low density snow sitting on 1f+ to P hard slabs from previous wind events. Didn’t find any buried surface hoar. Small loose snow avalanches was the main concern. Still didn’t have the confidence to push persistent slab margins in steep rocking terrain, or what looked to be hard slabs sitting on facets in ATL wind affected areas.

AVALANCHES: Numerous loose snow avalanches from the last few days that where d1.5’s at best. Several shallow slabs on on east facing terrain generally propagating 50ft wide. One in the ragged wilderness area looked to be a couple hundred feet wide.

UPLOADS:

Mountain Weather January 22, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/22/2015

Most weather stations around the zone are showing sub zero temperatures this morning. An upper high pressure ridge expands over our region today as a closed low works across New Mexico, making for a sunny and stable day. A weak shortwave fights through the ridge on Friday, but doesn’t hold much potential for precipitation. A blocking pattern sets up through the weekend, with dry weather and a few waves bringing increased cloudiness under a warming trend.

Today

High Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0

Photos of Scarp Ridge Slide

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/21/2015


UPLOADS:

Natural slab avalanche off of Scarp Ridge

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/21/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Natural slab avalanche off of Scarp Ridge
ASPECT: North East
ELEVATION: 12,000 ft.

AVALANCHES: Fresh persistent slab avalanche off of NE aspect of Scarp Ridge, new in the past 2 days. Looks like it might have been triggered by rockfall. 3 feet at its deepest, most of it was about 1-2 feet, ~20 feet wide at apex, fanned out to about 100 feet wide. Multiple failure planes, looked like the Jan 11 interface on the flanks and ground in the middle. Surprisingly shallow snow depth for this part of the zone; I believe that path also ran during the Solstice Storm. HS-NR-R2-D2-O/G

UPLOADS:

Mountain Weather January 21, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/21/2015

Mostly dry conditions prevail as a wet air mass misses us as it moves through Arizona, while a cold disturbance passes to our northeast before converging on the southern disturbance over New Mexico. Enough moisture could ride up north for a few flurries this afternoon. Cold, dry northerly flow will fill in behind these systems by Thursday, and high pressure along the west coast will keep our mountains out of the storm track into next week.

Today

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-1″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 0
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: E
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow:

Natural slab avalanche near CB South

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Cement Creek Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/20/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Natural slab avalanche near CB South
ASPECT: East
ELEVATION: BTL

 

AVALANCHES: Fresh looking natural persistent slab avalanche on an east aspect below treeline. Hard to tell exactly when it ran, but I chatted with a resident who keeps eyes on that slope and she thought it was new today. The slope is a crossloaded, sagebrush slope below Whetstone/Round Mountain. The slab looked about 12″-18″ deep, (most of the season’s snowpack), and was about 100 feet wide. SS-N-R2-D1.5-O

WEATHER:

SNOWPACK:

UPLOADS:

Mountain Weather January 20, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/20/2015

We’ll see partially clearing skies today in the wake of the shortwave trough that passed overhead last night, bringing a much welcomed refresh to our snow surface. Lingering orographic snowfall should burn off around sunrise. A deepening Pacific trough will drop to our southwest on Wednesday morning, and an arctic air mass moves in from the north. We’ll have to exchange our flip-flops for down jackets, with more typical January temperatures returning to the valley and a chance for an inch or two of snow before things dry out through the rest of the work week.

Today

High Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 5-15 mph, G 25
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 0-1″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 10
Wind Speed: 3-13
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2″

Gothic Area Avalanche

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/19/2015
NAME: Eliot Rosenberg
SUBJECT: Gothic Area Avalanche
ASPECT: North
ELEVATION: 10,300 roughly

AVALANCHES: Apparently skier triggered by a separate previous party, possibly 1-3 days old. Failure occurred on the Dec. 13th layer on a 35-40 degree North facing slope. (Rough numbers) 90cm total snow depth, 30cm bed surface to ground, 50-60cm crown depth, 9m crown width, ran 30-40m creating a moderately sized debris pile.

WEATHER: Today it was mostly sunny with a light breeze blowing west to east, mid-day temps were around 30 degrees.

SNOWPACK: Shallow snowpack (roughly 90cm total snow depth) full of facets!

UPLOADS:

FullSizeRender-9