Surprise sky conditions with broken to scattered.
Temps hovering below freezing.
No precip.
Winds 10-20mph from SW/S/SE with few stronger gusts.
Quick dog walk around Blueberry Knoll before sunset.
Surprise sky conditions with broken to scattered.
Temps hovering below freezing.
No precip.
Winds 10-20mph from SW/S/SE with few stronger gusts.
~10 cm of new dry snow at trailhead, but wind had done a good job redistributing the goods into varied depths of soft windslab while circumnavigating the knoll. At some places trail was fully scoured, in others trail was hiding under 30+cm of drifts.
There was 2mm graupel mixed in with precipitation particles.
Glad to see that surface snow was colder than I anticipated and that air temps or rain had not transformed it into the isothermal mess we have going on in town.
In the wind sheltered hemlocks there was about 10cm of new snow, ankle deep boot penetration.
Wind was doing its thing with strong wind transportation and scouring the trail even at these fairly low elevation. I could see consistent snow plumes off the ridgelines on Flattop and O'Malley.
Wind slabs were still soft and varied in depth (5-15cm) depending on aspect. As the winds continue, they will grow and stiffen.
Old debris on the regular avalanche slope just beyond the trail sign at north end of Blueberry Knoll. The commonly active avalanche slope at the south end of BBK was definitely loading at its starting zone but I could not see recent debris piles.