Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Frozen precip while skinning, lift-skiing, and automobile-excavation until just after 5 pm, whereupon precip at Central finally turned to rain. Lift operations shut down around 11:45 am.

Skiing throughout the day was quite good at Silver Fir elevations. Precipitation particles consisted primarily of ball-bearing clear ice-balls 1-3mm in size throughout the day; skied even better than graupel. Loose-dry sluffs ran smooth and far, probably the lowest-angle dry granular flow I've seen, running more than a quarter of the height of Snoqualmie's "Wildcat" run from a single turn.

Today's snow remained granular and unconsolidated, with small density variations and substantial, until sometime after 4 pm. A breakable crust was in place by 5pm becoming fully supportable by 5:45, with majority-liquid precipitation.