Greetings from Silverton,
Snow cover at Senator Beck Study Plot (elevation 12,200') is gone as of today, June 17. Remaining snow is mainly at higher elevations, northern aspects, and drift accumulation areas. The Study Basin is now less than 50% snow covered, which translates, in our definition, to winter season 2016/17 officially coming to a close at Senator Beck. Please see snow/streamflow/albedo plots below.
On June 12 a major wind event hit eastern Utah and northern Arizona, and then western Colorado. The dust that was kicked up was impressive. With the wind/dust pulse coming in mostly in the evening and little snow at lower elevations, and the dust surface already being dirty in the San Juans, any new dust deposition was not immediately apparent, but a portion undoubtedly made its way to Colorado. So maybe we can call it a "dust-on-remaining-snow-event" of little consequence. We collected dust samples for USGS analysis following the event from the remaining sparse snow drifts.
Please see attached photos from the USGS dust webcams (http://eldesierto.org/photoarch_index.html). These cameras are maintained by Harland Goldstein and Frank Urban, which is a challenge under drastic budget constraints. The CODOS Program is also grateful that Harland and his colleagues are willing/able to process our dust samples with no supporting funds to do so.
Expect to see our Season Summary here in a few weeks.
AND HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!
