Colorado Weather Discussion Thread

[Alpinord]

A friend forwarded this from The Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies
in Silverton:

Greetings from Silverton,

The morning of Thursday, April 12 started off with dust storm warnings in the desert southwest. We watched as web cameras showed the clouds and dust moving towards Colorado. In the Four Corners region high winds and dry dusty clouds were widely reported, folks could "taste" the dust in the air and feel the dust in their eyes. Phil Straub (CSAS employee) was at the Opus hut (San Juan Mts.) during the event and said it looked apocalyptic from about 4pm until the sun went down. The majority of the event was deposited dry in the San Juan Mts., without precipitation, on top of dust layers D3/D4 which were already on the surface of the snowpack. This event looks to be widespread with reliable reports describing a super dusty Vail Pass and Vail Mtn of red/brown/rust coloration. Even reports of dust on vehicles in Boulder. Starting around 8pm precipitation followed the dust and high winds, we received 0.5" (13 mm) of water content at Swamp Angel and snow is in the forecast the rest of today and tonight. Currently, D3/D4/D5 are combined into one layer and sitting ~7" below the snow surface at Swamp Angel. After the storm passes we will sample the dust at Swampy and get revealing pictures of the severity of the event.


The CODOS team conducted a portion of the April CODOS tour on April 11. Sites visited were on the Front Range, Hoosier, Grizzly, Berthoud, and Willow Creek Pass. We opted to delay sampling at the rest of the CODOS sites until after this current storm passes in order to assess the range and intensity of D5.


You can expect a full April CODOS Tour report by the first part of next week.


More soon

Above: Abajo dust camera for April 12.



Phil Straub took above photo from near Opus Hut in San Juans.



​​ Phil Straub took above photo from near Opus Hut in San Juans.

[SkiBall]

Dust on crust.

[goldenboy]

Honestly, the hood of my truck looked less dusty than Powtron's. So maybe there is hope. Smileyface, if that dust gets covered, there's still plenty of good skiing left.

[SkiBall]

Didn't really see anything in Vail, but maybe once this other stuff melts off tomorrow then it may be noticeable.

[zartagen]

Didn't really see anything in Vail, but maybe once this other stuff melts off tomorrow then it may be noticeable.

There's dust. Hard to know exactly how much, but there is definitely dust.

[trogdortheburninator]

Obvious dust in 10 mile range.

[The SnowShow]

Gorgeous day out there. Copper had good turns up high. Saw some dirt under last night’s snow but not bad.

[bamboocoreONLY]

May have gotten enough snow here in Breck to cover all the dust that wasn't in wind affected areas. Skied real well up high.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

May have gotten enough snow here in Breck to cover all the dust that wasn't in wind affected areas. Skied real well up high.

Breck was great on Saturday, a basin was aight on Friday, skied the beavers which was not that good, but lower east wall was decent. I saw dust at both places but not too much, just a light dusting of dust. More dust at my house in highlands ranch than either place.

[SkiBall]

There's dust. Hard to know exactly how much, but there is definitely dust.

I don't doubt it. Think there is another little layer from earlier that might be covered up still.

[zartagen]

Anybody see themselves in this photo?

[Alpinord]

Soft serve ice cream on dust on hard crust:

[The SnowShow]

Anybody see themselves in this photo?

Any tits come out?

[WTF is dat]

Holy shit 4@4 was fun today !

I ended up going on a party bus from Lodo for $45 that had unlimited beer and champagne on board. This was a great idea and horrible idea as I was nearly blackout drunk the entire day. Lots of fun in the sun.


Why isn’t tapatalk letting me share photos !?!?

[Kevo]

Breck skied well on Saturday, but lots of red dust under the new snow. Minimal lines and pretty mellow mood all in all.

MTB @ Buff Creek yesterday which was pretty darn good as well.

[The SnowShow]

Found some silky smooth corn on Berthoud today. And dust.

[Rideski]

Looks like another line up for Saturday snow : /

[Ireallyliketoski2]

Looks like another line up for Saturday snow : /

Once the resorts book up Joel will start dropping the totals

[The SnowShow]

Once the resorts book up Joel will start dropping the totals

Winter Park, A Basin and Loveland will get 20” and be a complete clusterF. Saturday Pow days suck.

[ASmileyFace]

Soft serve ice cream on dust on hard crust:

FKNA! Nice work!

[Alpinord]

FKNA! Nice work!

Ha! It was all Mudfoot's persistence and puppy power. We stuck to 'Old Guy Half Pipe', but the Grande Couloir looked enticing. Pretty 'scrapey' underneath, however and glad for smooth, sharp edges..

[rocca]

Ha! It was all Mudfoot's persistence and puppy power. We stuck to 'Old Guy Half Pipe', but the Grande Couloir looked enticing. Pretty 'scrapey' underneath, however and glad for smooth, sharp edges..

Got looker's left of Grande on Saturday. It was real good back there!

[smmokan]

Once the resorts book up Joel will start dropping the totals

He's really got this storm nailed down.... current forecast is 6-24". Could be more, could be less.

[summit]

I've noticed this season Joel's ranges have grown to the max being 4-6X the min vs in the past it has been in 2-3X

[Rideski]

Great pic!


Re snow: don’t get me wrong I’ll take Saturday snow over no snow.
Those last couple heavy wet storms are going to leave some base going for quite a while now.