Red Cone Bowl

Posted April 27th, 2010 by joshf

Location

United States
37° 35' 43.1808" N, 119° 1' 36.8724" W
Date and time of observation: 
April 27, 2010 - 6:30pm
Region: 
Mammoth Area
Observation Type: 
Snowpack
Route: 

End of Old Mammoth Rd, to Lake George and up to high point on northern slope of red cone bowl.  Back down same way.

Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Wind Speed: 
Strong
Wind Direction: 
West
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Air temperature trend: 
Cooling
Cloud Cover: 
100% of the sky covered by clouds
Precipitation: 
Snow
Accumulation rate: 
Less than 1 in. per hour
More detailed information about the weather: 

Upper 20's temp, light precipitating in the form of graupel, moderate to strong winds predominating out of the west but very swirly.

Snowpack & Snowpit Observations
Information about the snowpack/snowpit: 

By about 6:45 only about 1 inch of new snow, mostly fallen n the form of graupel.  In some higher elevations where wind deposits exist about 2 inches of deposition was found.  Underlying old snow surface below 10,000' mostly moist and not hard, new snow appearing to bond well to this warm surface.  Elevations above 10,000' underlying old snow surface fairly hard.  Upper parts of steep ridges are mostly wind stripped, especially west facing, but also north facing.  No slabyness so far observed in this new snow. 

Comments: 

Not much new snow fallen so far today (~an inch), and mostly in the form of graupel.  Doing a nice job of smoothing out the snow surface.  A few more inches tonight could make for some nice skiing tomorow.  Winds were howling, this combined with a few more inches tonight could produce some isolated wind slabs on steeper slopes that could be sensitive to skiier triggering. 

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