January 8, 2014

Latest North American avalanche fatality, January 7, 2014 at 11:30 hrs near Vail, Colorado: 1 Dead, 3 injured. Details in links below.

Snowed to to the valley yesterday morning, 2 cm recorded at 1550 meters by 14:30 hrs.

Most of the day was dry, the snow ended by noon. Mid level stratus cloud moved in around the same time frame.

There was a band of clearing above 1600 meters  for most of the afternoon.



Weather observations for Wednesday; January 8, 2014, taken at 06:00 Hrs.

2240 meters     -5.0, winds were 30-40 KPH from the S
2180 meters     -4.0, winds were 30-50 KPH from the S
1860 meters     -3.5, winds were 20-40 KPH from the S
1835 meters     -2.5, winds were 20-35 KPH from the S
1650 meters          0, 1 cm of new snow, Base 106 cm, 2 cm yesterday
1550 meters     -1.5,  1 cm of new snow, Base   76 cm, 2 cm yesterday
  660 meters          0, Valley Temp, 1.5 mm of precip yesterday
 Presently snowing lightly in the Alpine.

For the forecast a stronger cold front will affect our zone today into this evening. A weaker front arrives for Thursday drying out slightly into early Friday. Friday into Saturday a deep low associated with tropical moisture, strong winds, and freezing levels around 1000 meters will bring a typical November storm to our area. Sunday as of now has a flat ridge building bringing light snow. Models are still in conflict after Friday but it looks like we should get 60-70 cm total accumulation by Sunday morning. The zonal flow and series of quick short wave troughs we will see through the weekend is just what we needed!! Guesstimates: 15-18 cm by Thursday morning, 8-10 cm by Friday morning, 24-28 cm by Saturday morning, 14-18 cm by Sunday morning, 5-8 cm by Monday morning. These amounts will change as more data and the new model runs are published. Some inconsistency in the model runs for next week but it may start off with a weaker version of this week.

The High is still very close by, but the pattern is looking much like one we would get in November.




Austrian Technique for Avalanche Proofing ski slopes: Highland Cows

Lindsay Vonn not competing at Sochi: Facebook

 New economy for a ski town in the US: Telluride Colorado

Story on Avalanche December 29 Th in Hope Creek, B.C.: Nasty Avalanche Involvement

One person killed, 3 injured in Avalanche near Vail: Colorado

Lots of cloud, not enough precip.

The big picture looks good but not as organised as it could be.

Even the sun tried to make an appearance with a fairly thin upper cloud layer.

Near days end above the stratus layer.

Just below the layer in the valley.