Storm Update

Storm total water equivalent as of 4 PM Saturday: 

Alta-Collins: 1.53"
Spruces: 1.24"
Ben Lomond: 3.5"
Snowbasin-Boardwalk: 1.81"
Brighton SNOTEL: 1.6"
Deer Valley Ontario: 0.88"
Sundance-Mid Mountain: 6.08"
Bunnels Ridge: 3.78"

So far, the storm has delivered as I might have expected in the southern Wasatch (Sundance, Bunnels ridge) and on Ben Lomond.  Elsewhere, we're running near or below expectations (so far).  In this case, that's probably a good thing.  As a meteorologist, you want your forecast to verify, but you can be happy when the hurricane comes onshore with impacts lower than expected.  I think that's the case here as it enabled us to go skiing, albeit in Sierra Cement rather than the Greatest Snow on Earth.  The ski touring was better than I expected, mainly because the high water content snow wasn't excessively deep.  

Speaking of water content, Alta-Collins automated observations suggest 14% at 9700 feet.  At lower elevations, water contents were certainly higher.  At about 7500 ft in Big Cottonwood Canyon, ski penetration was pretty limited due to both density and shallowness.  

There was, however, a fairly noticeable transition in snow density and wetness at about 8500 feet, which I suspect was close to the freezing level for much of the event (note that the snow level is below the freezing level, but melting typically results in wetter, higher density snow below the freezing level).  Still, the skiing was fun, although we found the snow to be somewhat inverted.  I suspect the joy of skiing today was a direct result of modern ski design.  I can't imagine that the 205s I used to ski in the backcountry back in the day would have done anything but dive.  Hooray for modern technology!

The models forecast this storm to continue until Sunday night or Monday.  When all is said and done, we will end up near or above 3.5" of water for the storm total at Alta-Collins.    

I may be taking a short blog break for a few days to recover.