Corn and Deep Wet Snow on Castle Peak

Location Name: 
Castle Peak
Region: 
Donner Summit Area
Date and time of observation: 
Fri, 04/01/2016 - 11:30
Location Map: 
United States
39° 21' 18.8388" N, 120° 20' 26.9772" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Rapid warming
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

Wind loaded E aspects held a thin layer of wet snow 3-6 cm thick on top of a quickly melting and barely supportable melt freeze crust at 11 am this morning. Below these surface layers deep wet snow existed. Ski cuts on sun-exposed E aspect test slopes between 7600 and 8000 ft. did trigger some small loose wet instabilities prior to 11 am. The higher elevations remained supportable longer with 3-8 cm of wet "almost corn" snow on top of a skier supportable crust on SE-S aspects until at least 12:30 pm. The SW aspects where more scouring took place during the storm held full corn conditions on top of supportable melt freeze crusts. Any sun exposed N-NE-E aspects held wet sticky snow by midday. 

Photo 1: Small skier triggered loose wet instabilities on a steep E aspect at 11:30 am at 7900 ft. 

Photo 2: Wet snow on top of a melting crust on top of more wet snow at 7900 ft on a nearby E aspect at 11:30 am.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
Clear
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Calm
Precipitation: 
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Accumulation rate: 
More detailed information about the weather: