Greetings from Silverton on a blustery Wednesday morning, April 23 -
As of this writing at 7 AM, we have not received a significant new dust-on-snow deposition here in Silverton, despite some fairly strong SW'ly winds yesterday afternoon and overnight. Blustery weather continues this morning but skies appear quite clear as the sun rises and blue sky is revealed between fast-moving clouds. Neither did we receive any meaningful fresh snow, so dust layer D4 remains just as exposed as it was yesterday.
However, even without additional fresh dust, the surging being logged on streams throughout the Colorado mountains is likely to be sustained until at least next weekend. Several watersheds experienced flows yesterday that approached their median peak flow levels. The current surging is being enhanced by dust layer D4, perhaps merged with D3 in some locales, and the next several partly sunny to sunny days will reveal additional D4 at the snowpack surface, absorbing even more solar energy. This coming weekend a potentially significant and energetic winter storm may deposit fresh snow and restore high albedo to the snowcover for some period, OR, may deposit snow and dust, only briefly restoring higher albedo.
The CSAS crew is heading out for a full CODOS site circuit this morning, first to Swamp Angel Study Plot and then to Park Cone this afternoon, then onward in the usual progression over the next several days, returning to Silverton Saturday evening. We will then issue our eleven site-specific Updates over the following several days.
More soon,
Chris