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Weather Summary

Afternoon weather obs: Bands of high clouds building into the early afternoon, then slowly dissipating in late afternoon, allowing for some periods of sun. Light winds blowing out of the SE along ridgetops. Warm ambient air temperatures at all elevations.

Snowpack Observations

Primary goal was to look at the amount and character of settled storm snow in this area and the interface between new and old snow (11/27 interface). Storm snow settled to 65-75cm here, settlement created a right side up slab with F snow at surface and 1F at base. Found standing SH xtals up to 1cm at 1/27 interface, which produced dirty shears and were unreactive in ECTs. 12/11 interface is down 85-95cm and produced repeated ECTP results in the single digits to low teens, with very short PST and CPST cut lengths (10-15/100 END). Experienced some localized, muffled collapsing (down on 12/11 I suspect, but not certain), but less than anticipated given snowpack structure and stability test results. Settlement and thickness of slab is likely making it a bit more difficult to impact the weak layer (ski pen just 30cm in most places)

Surface snow did some significant warming today, particularly where sun was affecting it. Low elevation surfaces felt moist during the heat of the day, even in the shade, but not enough to generate a crust. A widespread layer of surface hoar was present, with xtals observed up to 1.3cm. This had wilted a bit on solar aspects and near valley bottoms but was standing erect elsewhere. Won't see nearly enough of a load to stress it (with this storm) but could get preserved in a state conducive to produce future instability.