CODOS Update March 30, 2021: Dust Event #4 Delivered Last Night
Greetings from Silverton,
Perhaps no surprise given the forecast we mentioned a few days ago in Storm Report #14. Gusty winds persisted yesterday afternoon in Silverton and many areas around Colorado. As evening approached the sky was still blue but satellite imagery suggested and photographs confirmed dust mobilization near Moab and elsewhere. This morning observers noted dust on their windshield in Montrose and in Silverton a new pinkish hue is noticeable on the snow surface. It appears that high winds didn’t dig in as much towards the Four Corners region, so it may be that central and northern mountains received more dust than the southern. We will know for sure when we do the next statewide sampling tour. This was a dry event, at Red Mt we received only 1 mm precipitation in the early morning hours.
This is dust event #4 observed at Senator Beck Study Basin, our monitoring sentry site. Yesterday we noted in a snow profile at Swamp Angel that dust layer #3 is 12" beneath the snow surface and #2 is 19" below surface. Dust event #1 is on/near ground. And now we have dust layer #4 on the surface.
Please see pictures below.
Take Care
Picture of very hazy, gritty conditions late afternoon on March 29 near Moab. Photo by Jeff Deems.
Picture taken at USGS Island in the Sky dust cam late yesterday.
Yesterday at Molas Pass, sluff on D3 or a merged D3/D4. Photo by Andrew Temple.
Wind Rose at Putney for dust event #4