Hey everybody, I wanted to make a couple quick observations and ask some followup questions about how the recent weather events may effect our snowpack for the upcoming season.
Quick summary: Approximately 3 inches of precipitation fell throughout the region last week. Most of, if not all, of this precipitation fell as rain. Snow levels were well above summit peaks.The rain event resulted in a reduced snowpack (15-20 inches) and increased SWE's.
Avalanche Canada Kootenay Boundary has a good picture of a pit dug in this saturated snowpack that is worth a look if you haven't experienced it first hand (Description: http://www.avalanche.ca/forecasts/kootenay-boundary, Photo: http://www.avalanche.ca/mountain-information-network/submissions/02bbd63e-a463-493a-a393-0f7e9a03c44a).
Two rain crusts are visible in the photo and you can see how saturated the column is from where the tester punched the snow. It's not clear from the photo if water percolated to the ground surface.
I was just wondering what people's thoughts were on how a saturated base and rain crust might effect the snowpack going forward. The rain crust will obviously need close observation as new snow begins to bond but could there be some other concerns with an excessively saturated base? Might it be a good thing to have such high, consolidate SWE's at the base?
Thanks
Quick summary: Approximately 3 inches of precipitation fell throughout the region last week. Most of, if not all, of this precipitation fell as rain. Snow levels were well above summit peaks.The rain event resulted in a reduced snowpack (15-20 inches) and increased SWE's.
Avalanche Canada Kootenay Boundary has a good picture of a pit dug in this saturated snowpack that is worth a look if you haven't experienced it first hand (Description: http://www.avalanche.ca/forecasts/kootenay-boundary, Photo: http://www.avalanche.ca/mountain-information-network/submissions/02bbd63e-a463-493a-a393-0f7e9a03c44a).
Two rain crusts are visible in the photo and you can see how saturated the column is from where the tester punched the snow. It's not clear from the photo if water percolated to the ground surface.
I was just wondering what people's thoughts were on how a saturated base and rain crust might effect the snowpack going forward. The rain crust will obviously need close observation as new snow begins to bond but could there be some other concerns with an excessively saturated base? Might it be a good thing to have such high, consolidate SWE's at the base?
Thanks