Mountain Weather March 31, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/31/2015

In like a lion and out like a lamb, March wraps up with another unusually warm one as the high pressure ridge crosses Colorado today. Alpine winds will pick up this afternoon, as well as some convective clouds. A progressive storm track is developing over the Northern Rockies, and we will be on the fringe of its influences of the rest of the week. A cool front stalls over northern Colorado tomorrow, bringing a small chance for isolated afternoon showers. On Wednesday night, a stronger cold front pushes across our zone, but moisture is lacking and we’ll be lucky to see a few inches of snow.

Today

High Temperature: 50
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 40
Wind Speed: 10-25
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0-1″

Mountain Weather March 31, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date:

In like a lion and out like a lamb, March wraps up with another unusually warm one as the high pressure ridge crosses Colorado today. Alpine winds will pick up this afternoon, as well as some convective clouds. A progressive storm track is developing over the Northern Rockies, and we will be on the fringe of its influences of the rest of the week. A cool front stalls over northern Colorado tomorrow, bringing a small chance for a few showers. On Wednesday night, a stronger cold front pushes across our zone, but moisture is lacking and we’ll be lucky to see a few inches of snow.

Today

High Temperature: 50
Wind Speed: 10-20, G30
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 40
Wind Speed: 10-25
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0-1

Mountain Weather for Monday, March 30th, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/30/2015

Another day of unseasonable warm weather is on tap as the stubborn ridge of high pressure remains amplified over the western United States. Convective clouds may increase this afternoon, but no precipitation is expected. Tomorrow looks to be the warmest and windiest day of the week, before a series of weak cold fronts cut across the Colorado Rockies, bringing a chance of rain and snow, with the unfortunate potential of blowing in red desert dust…

Today

High Temperature: 45-50
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 25-30
Wind Speed: 0-10
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 50-55
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

Mountain Weather for Sunday, March 29th, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/29/2015

Clouds moved in overnight, and acted like a blanket over our area, insulating the warm temperatures from yesterday and preventing freezing temperatures below 12,000ft. This morning those clouds will lift, creating sunny skies and very warm temperatures. The week ahead looks very spring-like, and record high temperatures look possible almost everyday of the work week.

Today

High Temperature: 45-50
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: trace

Tonight

Low Temperature: 30-35
Wind Speed: 0-10
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Clear
Snow: 0″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 45-50
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0″

IRWIN TENURE AND RUBY RANGE

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 03/28/2015
NAME: Evan Ross
SUBJECT: IRWIN TENURE AND RUBY RANGE
ASPECT: East, South, West
ELEVATION: NTL/BTL

 

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: Clear, high temps at 12k 38 and 10K 50 degrees. Mostly light westerly winds through the day that where increasing to moderate around 2pm. clouds started to increase to “few” around 3pm.

SNOWPACK: Todays observations where based in the same terrain as yesterdays observations, and are highlighting the differences between the two days. Recent storm snow has seen more settlement and was much less reactive today in the form of wet loose avalanches, compared to yesterday. I didn’t notice any more natural lose wet avalanche activity in the Ruby Range on East to South facing terrain, though the possibility of skier triggering may have remained. On the terrain we skied at NTL/BTL elevations, skier triggering a loose wet avalanche had become much more stubborn then yesterday, though we continued to seek colder snow and changed aspects throughout the day as the snow heated up.

The old snow surface below last weeks storm snow remained frozen in the form of thick crusts 20-45cm thick in the terrain observed. So we where only worried about loose wet avalanches and still need more time at these warm temperatures to see melt water penetrating deeper into the snowpack and to start worrying about wet slabs.

UPLOADS:

Irwin Tenure and Ruby Range

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 03/27/2015
NAME: Evan Ross
SUBJECT: Irwin Tenure and Ruby Range
ASPECT: East, South, West
ELEVATION: NTL/BTL

 

WEATHER: Light to Moderate westerly winds at ridge line. Clear sky. High temps of 37 at 12k and 47 at 10k.

SNOWPACK: The recent storm snow became moist or wet down to the 3/23 Interface on all terrain. A few quick pits throughout the day found frozen snow below the 3/23 Interface with moist grains below this very thick crust ~25cms. Skier triggered loose wet avalanches where very likely at 12:00pm on East and 2:00 pm on West.

Above treeline in the Ruby range loose wet avalanche where having a party. These avalanches where running on south east an south aspects in the areas we could see and where all in the D1 to D1.5 range. While relatively small, they would have wrecked your world if you got hit and tumbled by one. Something else of note, all this loose wet activity was starting from rock outcrops and slopes without big rock outcrops haven’t shed yet.

UPLOADS:

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Red lady Bowl

CBAC2014-15 Observations

GUIDE(S): Donny
DATE: 15-03-27
ACTIVITY: BC Skiing
LOCATION: Red Lady Bowl
ELEVATION: 9200’ to 12,400′
ASPECT: SE – S
WEATHER: Clear, warm, moderate winds throughout day.
SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Exactly as described on the bulletin.  The top of the bowl had small wind slabs and bigger cornices.  There’s about a foot of new snow deposited on the old surface and the upper half of this is warm and dense.  In the middle of the sandwich was drier, winter-like snow.  Ski cutting didn’t produce any activity.  There’s evidence of wet, loose slide activity from yesterday – most likely initiated by small cornice drops.  We were out of there before anything heated up too much.

Mountain Weather at 11,000ft March 28, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/28/2015

We have another mild day on tap, with mostly sunny skies and above average high temperatures. A cold front will be moving over our area this evening bringing gusty frontal winds and increased clouds. There is a small chance of a few snow showers but they would be very light and spotty in distribution. Our weather remains dry heading into next week with more above normal temperatures. There are a few hiccups in this dry flow next week but forecast models are not finding good agreement on what will happen yet. Thursday and Friday next week looks like the best chance for a bigger change in weather but we’ll have to wait for more details on that.

Today

High Temperature: 46-51
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 29
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow:

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 46
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

snow surveys

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 03/26/2015
NAME: ADB
SUBJECT: snow surveys
ASPECT: South East, South
ELEVATION: BTL

 

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: Mostly sunny, calm, warm

SNOWPACK: Two snow courses: Bottom of Red Lady Glades (Keystone) and the other by Mike’s Mile (Crested Butte).

Hard rain crust found at both courses 4 inches below the surface. Felt like an ice lens trying to take snow cores.
Depth of snow ranged between 24 and 35 inches on average. A few spots protected by tree cover were between 7 and 12 inches.
Red Lady Glade Course appears to be much warmer as soil plugs were wet and loose.

UPLOADS:

Mount Emmons

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 03/26/2015
NAME: than
SUBJECT: Shredwell
ASPECT: North, North East
ELEVATION: ATL, BTL

 

AVALANCHES: plenty of wet slide activity that looked to be two days old on s/sw faces in lower part of red well

WEATHER: sunny, warm, light winds up high 10mph range

SNOWPACK: Boot top goodness north face above treeline, boot top with crust underneath in wrong.