CODOS Update May 27, 2022: May CODOS Observations
Greetings from Silverton,
Well the snow season is nearly over with the bulk of the snowpack ablating over a month early in some regions. Streamflows have peaked particularly in Southern Colorado - again, upwards to a month early for some streams. There are a number of peak streamflow holdouts along the Northern and Front Range Mountains. Many streams will also see a nice bump in flows from the welcome precipitation events over last weekend across much of the state, the high elevations along the Front Range Mts have a lovely white blanket of snow as we head into June.
Last week we observed snow ablation at Senator Beck Basin and then made the last codos tour of the season digging snow profiles where there was still snow and sampling dust for USGS analyses.
Soon we will begin working on the summary report where we will detail this unique dusty winter season. Our preliminary analyses shows record melt rates in April at numerous SNOTEL sites including our data out of Senator Beck Study Basin. For example, at Wolf Creek the top three years of average daily loss of SWE in April was 2018, 2022, and 2020 (0.33”, 0.29”, 0.23”/day respectively). At Slumgullion it was 2022, 2018, 2017 (0.23”, 0.20”, 0.16”/day respectively). Stay tuned as we will dive into what this epic dust year meant for the Colorado snowpack and water resources.
Please see pictures from each monitoring site below along with brief notes of our observations.
Take Care,
Jeff Derry
SWAMP ANGEL (Red Mt Pass): MAY 14
Snow was effectively gone at Swamp Angel on May 16 (1-month early) and at Senator Beck study site on May 18 (5 to 6 weeks early). As is usually the case, the SBB stream gauge had a double peak, that of the lower elevations (11,000’) and the higher elevations (above 12,000’) which occurred on May 15 and May 18. Dust severity this season was “max”, meaning heavy dust was on/near surface all of spring. The last time we labeled a season as severe was 2013.
WOLF CREEK PASS: MAY 17
Our sample site at Wolf Creek was completely devoid of snow. The more northerly facing ski area still had a little snow cover. The exposed soil and vegetation seemed dry. The Rio Grande hit its median peak SWE this year but melted out over 30 days early!! Epic dust with high/warm/dry winds zapped the snow record fast.
SPRING CREEK PASS: MAY 17
Spring Creek was really dry. We could not find any snow whatsoever to collect end of season dust-on-snow samples. Driving up to the pass was largely snow free as well, except for a some north facing treed areas.
PARK CONE: MAY 17
Park Cone SNOTEL and the surrounding area was mostly snow free on May 17. The high mountains in the region still retained some snow. See ASO snow reports here. A number of SNOTEL’s had a very good year for snow, too bad the dust and spring weather ablated the snow so quickly.
GRAND MESA: MAY 15
Grand Mesa still had snow cover on top of the Mesa but the edges driving up to the sky view ski area were snow free. The study area had 10.6” SWE on May 15. Dust of course was severe and located at the surface.
McCLURE PASS: MAY 15
No surprise that Mc Clure was snow free, what was surprising was how little snow there was in the shady and north facing areas.
HOOSIER PASS: MAY 16
Hoosier Pass was patchy in places but we did measure 5.5” SWE at the sample site and collected dust samples.
Berthoud PASS: MAY 16
We measured 11.8” SWE at Berthoud with all the dust at the surface.
Loveland PASS: MAY 16
There was still ok snow cover at Loveland Pass with 5.7” SWE at our site near the Grizzly SNOTEL.
WILLOW Creek PASS: MAY 16
Willow Creek was largely snow free but for the more northerly treed areas.
RABBIT EARS PASS: MAY 16
Rabbit Ears was the big winner during this tour with 4.6’ of snow and 23” of SWE. Still pretty bad dust for this region. It was the talk of the town as folks are not as accustomed to waking up to mud on their vehicles, like they did after the May 8 dust event. See this nicely done piece by the Steamboat Pilot.
