Dust on crust conditions in Drifter Bowl

Location Name: 
Drifter Bowl
Region: 
Donner Summit Area
Date and time of observation: 
Sun, 01/27/2013 - 12:00
Location Map: 
United States
39° 21' 16.668" N, 120° 17' 20.7636" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Recent loading by new snow, wind, or rain
Obvious avalanche path
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

About 1 inch of cold light snow existed on top of a refrozen rain crust on all aspects in the area of Drifter Bowl. Wind loading only incresed the snow depth to 2-3 inches in very small areas near the ridgelines. The areas where the most wind loading occurred still only had about 4-5 inches of snow on them. Those patches of deeper snow only extended downslope for 1-2 feet before giving way to crusts with a light dusting of new snow on top of them. A mix of graupel and new snow crystals comprised the thin layer of new snow on the surface. I did not observe any indications of instability in this area today.

Photo 1: Refrozen supportable rain crust on a wind scoured ridgeline at 7700 ft.

Photo 2: Graupel particles in the new snow

Photo 3: The largest area of wind deposited snow that I found in this area. It was only about 5 inches deep at its deepest and quickly diminished to less than 1 inch deep only 2 ft. away from its deepest point.

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Below Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Light
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Static
Wind Direction: 
North
Accumulation rate: 
More detailed information about the weather: 

Snow showers ended earlier than expected preventing any additional accumulation from occuring during the day today. Instead of receiving 3-6 inches of snow out of this storm, this area only received 1-2 inches.