CODOS UPDATE june 8: observations from Senator Beck

Greetings from Silverton,

We visited Swamp Angel at 11,060’ Red Mt Pass again today to check on the progress of snow ablation. At Swampy measured SWE is 5.8”. On average over the last four days we lost 1.4” SWE/day. At Senator Beck station (12,200’) we still have an estimated 12.8” SWE, on average over the last four days we lost 0.5” SWE/day. We have had pretty nice days these last few days where it has been warm/sunny (albeit partly cloudy) during most of the day and then rain starting late afternoon around 3-4pm. So we been getting almost full days of melt then a rain bonus to add to streamflow. Tuesday we saw a warmish day followed by rain that brought 0.60” precipitation and a spike in streamflows. It also brought a scuffing of snow higher up at Senator Beck which resulted in a mild albedo reset (54% to 67%). Streamflows are down yesterday and today in the Southwest corner of the state, also generally the case around the state but a few gauges are showing an impressive increase.

Unless you are in the northeast quadrant of the state it appears we are in for a drying out. The weather forecast is calling for general dry and warm conditions but still a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Given that, I would expect a ramp up in melt of the existing snow. We’ll see how the rest of the season unfolds, here in the Red Mt Pass region, like we have mentioned before, typically when Swamp Angel melts out it aligns pretty well with a 11,000’ elevation band snowmelt induced streamflow surge. In the next few days when this happens whether or not the spike will exceed the rain-assist spike we saw a couple days ago will be interesting to see. Higher up in the alpine at Senator Beck station the same is generally true for the typical second spike in the hydrograph. Being well into June it will be interesting to see how fast the bulk of the remaining snow will melt. Remember too, dust-on-snow conditions are about average along the Front Range, and severe in many areas in Central/Southern Colorado (please see previous updates regarding specifics).

Take Care,

Jeff Derry

Below: Pictures from Swamp Angel. An impressive amount of snow still around for this time of year.