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Grey Butte

Location Name: 
Grey Butte
Region: 
Mt. Shasta
Date and time of observation: 
Wed, 03/22/2017 - 6:45pm
Observation made by: 
Professional Observer

Location Map

United States
41° 20' 43.944" N, 122° 11' 44.052" W
See map: Google Maps
US

Snowpack Observations

Details

Tour of Grey Butte saw 9 to 11 inches of new snow since Monday. Above freezing temperatures up to at least 8000' were changing snow conditions on all aspects quickly. New snow was becoming heavy and sintered. Expect zipper crusts on Thursday.

Winds were calm and little sign of wind effect was observed below 8000'.

Small natural avalanches (D1) were seen on eastern aspects of Sun Bowl and Green Butte. Two were wind slab avalanches, one appeared to be a loose dry point release.

Test pit was dug on NE aspect of Grey Butte just below the weather station. Fist hard rain effected layer was discovered 48 cm down and 36 cm thick. Seemed very weak but no compression failures were seen here. Shovel shear test pulled ECT block out at this layer. Test results: CT13 @ 21 cm, ECTN18 @ 21 cm. 

Skiing on west aspect in trees produced a lot of roller balls from the top 20 cm of snow. Skier reported skiing the chute just to the right of the trees on the west aspect below the weather station and saw no signs of instability.

 

Snow Pit Photos

Weather Observations

Statistics

Cloud Cover: 
75% of the sky covered by clouds
Blowing Snow: 
No
Precipitation: 
None
Accumulation rate: 
None
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Air temperature trend: 
Warming
Wind Speed: 
Calm