After Chaos Comes Quiescence

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the events of this past winter and most recent storm cycle.  Little Cottonwood Canyon opened temporarily for downhill traffic this morning.  Like you, I've mainly received media snippets of the cataclysm along the highway, with many natural and human-triggered avalanches burying the road.  Coalpit #4, the lowest path in the canyon with historical evidence of reaching the highway, hit the road for the first time since 1983 per UDOT interviews. 

Source: https://cottonwoodcanyons.udot.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/11107_2_LCC_Avalanche_Slide_Path_Zones_FIN.pdf

Photos in the tweet below from Brian Schnee show aerial views of debris from several paths covering the road.

📸 Here’s an aerial view of Little Cottonwood Canyon showing some of the recent avalanche activity and the debris buildup along #SR210.

Photos from this morning show some massive slides in the White Pine area. pic.twitter.com/5KbX0lXhc9

— 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐞 (@brian_schnee) April 5, 2023

Yesterday, an avalanche above Snowbird slid across the highway and into the upper Chickadee area, sparking a return to interlodge and a search effort that thankfully confirmed nobody was involved in the slide.  I suspect the triggering of that avalanche was related to surface heating, and illustrates that although the storm is over, avalanche concerns linger.  Hats off to all of the snow safety, snow removal, public safety, service, and other "all hands on deck" workers during this long and difficult period.  

One thing is for sure, we are moving into a more quiescent period meteorologically.  A couple of weak brush-by systems will bring some clouds and maybe a spritz or two later today and tonight and some high clouds over the weekend, but by and large, it will be dry and mild.  Then, ridging builds in for early next week.

Those of you who have had enough of winter can rejoice and those of you who haven't can still take advantage of the incredible snowpack.

Here's a curious observation for you.  The Snowbird and Thaynes Canyon (PCMR) SNOTELs are still not at their highest (all time) water equivalents.  At Snowbird, the water equivalent sits at 70.6 inches.  Although a record for the date, this lags the peak water equivalents reached in May curing the 2005 and 2011 water years.  

Source: NRCS

Thaynes Canyon sits at 39.5 inches and is the only SNOTEL in the central and northern Wasatch Range not at a record for the date (it lags 2005).  It's also below the peak in 2011.  

Both sites are above 9000 feet, so they tend to see peak snowpack in late April, and this is one reason why they are not at an all-time level.  These are also point measurements and while they are generally useful for looking at year-to-year variations, they might deviate a little from the general snowpack in the surrounding area from year-to-year.  Changes in site characteristics or moves can also affect trends and comparisons from year to year.  

Blogger Bugginess

For some reason, I have not been getting notifications when people comment on my posts.  My apologies if you asked a question and I haven't responded, although I'm not sure I would have had time anyway.  I will try and look into this at some point, but it could simply be a blogger idiosyncrasy.