Settlement and Recovery

Early morning snow at Alta

Last weekend's lake-effect snow was relatively low density, and thus underwent substantial settlement and compaction this week.  The Alta-Collins 7 am snow depth dropped from a maximum of 42 inches on October 11 to a minimum of 24 inches yesterday.

Notice, however, the uptick to 29 inches this morning.  The dribs and drabs of wet snow yesterday and overnight are adding up.  And it is high density base builder.  Over the past 24 hours, Alta-Collins has observed 8 inches of snow with 1.16 inches of SWE.  That's 14.5% water content.  The Utah Avalanche Center suggests the storm is producing quite a bit of graupel.  If it's white, it's good, and if it's graupel, better yet.