Observation: NWAC Forecaster

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Weather Summary

Moderate winds to valley bottom in the morning, decreasing throughout the day. However, ridges maintained light winds with moderate gusts into the afternoon. At these low elevations, there was no available snow for transport. Mostly clear skies with some high clouds and warm temperatures nearing 40°F.

Snowpack Observations

There is 1-2ft of snow in the Salmon La Sac valley bottom, with patches of bare ground showing on west and south aspects. Snowpack depths increased up to approximately 3ft on northerly aspects at 4000ft, but isolated bits of dirt and rocks were still present on ridges, south, and west aspects up to 4500ft.

North and east aspects had approximately 6-10" of snow over the Christmas Crust, with 1-2 inches of moist surface snow with dry snow beneath. South and west aspects consisted of 4-5" of moist rounded grains over the Christmas Crust.

The high clouds and ridgeline breeze slowed snowpack warming on steep southerly aspects. As I left the field around 12:30 pm, steep slopes in the sun had begun to rollerball, but I had not yet seen any natural wet loose avalanches. However, I could trigger very small wet loose slides with ski cuts on these aspects.

North and west aspects showed little signs of wet loose activity.