weather affecting the snowpack

Posted on: November 29, 2009 | tkain | 1 Comment | Print Article | Rate Post:

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Many of our lives were put on hold late friday afternoon as mother nature shared with us our first big storm of the winter season. An avalanche crossed the Seward Highway near Mile 21.5 and closing the highway for about 24hrs.
This 970mb low tracked into pws and the kenai mountains producing 19” of sweet chugach powder and 2.2” h20 in the past five days. In the past 36 hrs the Summit Creek weather station at 1400 ft recorded 1.0” water and 10” of new snow. Southeasterlies brought in our first maritime storm of the season and a dense snow pack to begin the season on. Ridgetop winds were light to moderate coming from the east.
The newly loaded snowpack will required a few days to stabilize. The recent storm snow is attemping to bond with the facets snow crystals that form back during the high pressure system on the 15th-17th. A 6mm wind crust sits on top of facets was observed on the 25th at 3000’ on a west facing 30 degree slope. While digging a hand pit the block failed while cutting the back with a Q2 shear characteristics, clean, mostly smooth but does not slide readily. The block is fairly dense with the majority being 1F topped with 4F and F of new snow.

Thomas Bailey a top Frenso Ridge

There has been a new weather station added to the kenai mountains. It lies 3400’ on Fresno Ridge just north of Summit Lake. The station was added by, The Friends of the Avalanche Center, a 501c3 Non-profit organization devoted to supporting the CNFAIC. The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center (CNFAIC) is a program sponsored by the US Forest Service to provide timely snowpack and weather information to winter backcountry users at Turnagain Pass.
The Friends Group was organized to support and contribute to the educational and scientific activities provided for the public by the CNFAIC. These activities include, but are not limited to fundraising events, avalanche education for the public, operation of weather stations and organization of a team of snow observers to supplement observations made by the CNF forecasters. Please visit the group at http://www.cnfaic.org/friends/friends.php and get involved.

Tom Kain

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