Mountain Weather for Friday, February 27th, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/27/2015

Hold onto your hats. An impressive series of storms will arrive this afternoon from the Southwest, and impact the Crested Butte area through potentially next Wednesday. Yes, Wednesday. Although, we will not see the brunt of the storm (Wolf Creek may see up to 8″ liquid water), we should not feel too starved as 1-2 feet look reasonable. Clouds and snow showers will increase in coverage this afternoon, with stronger waves of moisture overnight and through the weekend. Winds should remain elevated, and temperatures look to remain at or below average through this time frame.

Today

High Temperature: 15-20
Wind Speed: 10-20 G40
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 2-4″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5-10
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 3-6″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 20-25
Wind Speed: 15-25
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 4-8″

Irwin Tenure Obs

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/26/2015
NAME: Irwin Tenure
SUBJECT: sdk/afla@ksa.com
ASPECT: East, South, West
ELEVATION: 10-12000

 

AVALANCHES: NW winds loaded Bender (E-facing 38º) just below the ridge and we triggered a slide that was similar to the other two slides there this season. Elsewhere, wind-loading seemed insignificant and unreactive though we didn’t go through any of the chutes. We cleaned off the cornice above Candy’s (E-facing 38º) with no results. The apron below Candy’s / Bender was very grabby skiing on the breakable crust.

WEATHER: 19” in the last 7 days.

SNOWPACK: 2-5cm MFcr throughout most aspects/elevations with the exception of Upper WW where the Feb 24 crust was only 1cm. Sunset right had no MFcr. 5” low density snow skied well today, especially wests and shady. Ski quality is slowly improving on majority of terrain.

UPLOADS:

Pittsburgh Area

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Paradise Divide Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/26/2015
NAME: Kelly Jensen
SUBJECT: Pittsburgh Area
ASPECT: North, North East, East
ELEVATION: 9400-10550

 

AVALANCHES: None new observed in the area of our tour.

WEATHER: Clear skies and calm winds in the morning. Clouds (overcast) and wind (light) building from the west by mid day and flurries (s1) by 2:00pm. Temperatures in the upper teens up to mid twenties.

SNOWPACK: New snow from yesterday/ last night totaling 5cm sitting on a sun/ temperature crust from Tuesday? Crust layer more noticeable as the aspect turns more east. 30 cm from the weekend storm. Boot pen: 44cm/ Ski pen: 14cm. HS: 200cm at northeast facing pit site at 10550ft. Results as follows, CT16/ ECTP14 at weekend snow/ old snow interface 35cm down (on 1-1.5mm facets)+ PST33/100End down 35cm on 2015-02-21 all @ 32 degrees.

UPLOADS:

Mountain Weather February 26, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/26/2015

We’ll see a brief lull in active weather this morning before another extended period of snowy weather kicks carrying us into next week. The previews start this afternoon as the next shortwave moves in from the northwest, issuing the first round of snowfall favoring Kebler and Paradise Divide. Unstable air will fuel showers on Friday morning, before the main feature begins to set up for the weekend. A large trough will tap into healthy amount of moisture and drive it over our region under southwest flow, fueling significant snowfall with good dynamic support. A foot or more seems reasonable by the end of the weekend.

Today

High Temperature: 18
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0-3″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 1-4″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 1-4″

Coney’s Obs

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/25/2015
NAME: Evan Ross
SUBJECT: Coney’s Obs
ASPECT: North East
ELEVATION: NTL/BTL

 

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: WEATHER: Mostly Cloudy with several snowfall bursts throughout the day. About 1″ new near the top of Coney’s at 2pm. Light to moderate winds where down valley at BTL elevations and westerly at ridgeline.

SNOWPACK: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS:
Only significant result was an intentionally skier triggered windslab at the top of the bowl. Propagated 40ish feet wide with an average crown of about 4″. Ran 150 feet and was a D1. Windslab failed on lower density storm snow.

Everywhere else we traveled in the bowl we didn’t really find any form of a slab within last weekends storm snow. There were certainly areas to be avoided at all elevations where you likely could have triggered a similarly small windslab.

Dug a pit at 10,700ft. HS 140. Last weekends storm snow was 35cm on a 2cm MFcr. Below this crust was F hard facets that where progressively harder all the way to the ground where they had become 1F hard. The facets just below the MFcr was the layer of concern but needed more of a slab on top to propagate a result. CTH SC, ECTN 20 on this interface.

Shady slopes below treeline have the most concerning structure as the storm snow is sitting on F hard weak facets to the ground. Though we didn’t come across a slope where last weekends storm snow had formed a slab, yet. Unless recent winds had cross loaded the slope. Near the trailhead there had been several storm slabs that failed naturally and where all D1 in size. These storm slabs where shallow and appeared to fail within the storm snow and not on the old snow interface.

UPLOADS:

IMG_0213

Mountain Weather February 25, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/25/2015

Unsettled northwest flow is developing over Colorado. A few pulses of moisture through the rest of the work week will bring the chance for light snow each day and increased wind speeds. We are too far south and west to catch major accumulations, but a larger storm is brewing for the weekend, which has some similar traits as last weekend’s storm.

Today

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 15-25, G35
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-3″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2″

Tomorrow

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

Mountain Weather February 25, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/25/2015

Unsettled northwest flow is developing over Colorado. A few pulses of moisture through the rest of the work week will bring the chance for light snow each day and increased wind speeds. We are too far south and west to catch major accumulations, but a larger storm is brewing for the weekend, which has some similar traits as last weekend’s storm.

Today

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 15-25, G35
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-3″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2

Tomorrow

High Temperature:
Wind Speed:
Wind Direction:
Sky Cover:
Snow:

Mt. Owen

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/24/2015
SUBJECT: Mt. Owen
ASPECT: North, North West
ELEVATION: 13000 feet

 

AVALANCHES: Skier triggered storm slab. Broke 1 foot deep propagated 100 feet on steep, shady alpine terrain and ran 1000 feet

WEATHER: clear calm

SNOWPACK: 10-14 inches of new snow, now wind.

UPLOADS:

avy

snow surveys

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/24/2015
NAME: ADB
SUBJECT: snow surveys
ASPECT:
ELEVATION:

 

AVALANCHES: Numerous slides observed on Axtell and Happy Chutes. Most of the slides were soft slab. Damage scale was mostly D1 with some D2. Aspects where activity occurred was from NE to E.

WEATHER: Mostly sunny. calm. Hot

SNOWPACK: Snow survey depths for Red lady Glades: 25 to 35.5 inches for 5 measurements.
Snow Survey depth for Butte: 25 to 42.5 inches for 12 measurements

UPLOADS: