Weather and Snow Coverage in Mammoth Lakes Basin

SNOWPACK OBSERVATION Lakes Basin Observations Mammoth Lakes
Submission Info Member Sunday, December 27, 2020 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Geoff Unger

Mammoth Lakes Basin 37° 35' 51.7056" N, 119° 0' 11.9844" W

See map: Google Maps

Snowpit Observations

More detailed information about the snowpack:

Toured into the Mammoth Lakes Basin today to look at snow coverage. To be honest I've been holding off on touring and waiting for the snowpack to be thick enough and supportable enough to make it seem reasonable. Everyone has a different tolerance for how thin is too thin. Maybe I am on the more conservative side of things, but today was just barely there for me.

There are still plenty of shallowly buried hazards and many still sticking up through the snow. That being said the snow surface was supportable and conditions were forgiving enough to wiggle through the obstacles. Not that I am the one to call it by any means, but I don't think its time to throw caution to the wind just yet given the intensely variable snow coverage out there. Nor should we forget there is still weak underlying snowpack structure out there from our early season snowstorms.

Snowpack photos:

Any other comments about the observation or links to outside pages that have more info on the observation:

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Weather Observations

Blowing Snow:

Cloud Cover:

100% of the sky covered by clouds

Air temperature:

Below Freezing

Wind Speed:

Calm

Precipitation:

Snow

Air temperature trend:

Static

Accumulation rate:

Greater than 1 in. per hour

More detailed information about the weather:

The morning was calm and milder temperatures than expected. By noon the snow started to fall lightly and then with waves of increasing intensity through the afternoon. The snow fell straight down a good bit of the time too, which can be rare for this area. a solid 3 inches was on the car when we got back there at 4 PM.