Transitional wet snow at Meadow Lake.

Location Name: 
Meadow Lake
Region: 
Independence Lake Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sun, 02/21/2016 - 12:00
Location Map: 
United States
39° 24' 59.9256" N, 120° 30' 9.0864" W
See map: Google Maps
US


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

Touring the Meadow Lake area today revealed surface wet snow formation in all but the most heavily shaded areas. Travel on all aspects between 6,400' and 7,700' revealed surface melt-freeze crust 2 to 3 cm thick in sun exposed areas during the mid morning hours. As daytime warming progressed, the surface crust melted and gave way to a near surface snowpack structure of 2 to 6 cm of wet surface snow on top of recent storm snow that had yet to under melt-freeze. Roller balls were prevalent on sun exposed slopes of 35 to 37 degrees and steeper.

Photo 1: Morning melt freeze crust on the snow surface.

Photo 2: Snowmobile ski pen into surface wet snow over remnant storm snow.

Photo 3: 3 to 4 cm of surface wet snow on top of remnant storm snow that had yet to under a melt cycle.

Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
No
Cloud Cover: 
Clear
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Direction: 
Southwest