That was a nice little storm to close out April. The Southern Mountains generally picked up around a foot of dense new snow in the last couple days, with snow water equivalent of around 1 to 2 inches. Wolf Creek picked up 2.7 inches of water with Spud Mountain and Vallecito coming in second with 2.3 inches.
The new snow is deep enough in itself to create Storm Slab avalanches. Slopes that received more than 8 inches of snow are the most likely areas to trigger one of these fresh slabs. Strong southwest winds drifted snow into thicker and stiffer slabs near and above treeline. Drifts will be more widespread on slopes facing north to east through south and avalanches on theses slopes will be larger and more dangerous. Look for warning signs like surface cracks and avoid lens-shaped pillows or textured snow to reduce your avalanche risk.
There is a lot of new storm snow sitting out there, and it's bound to shed off the old snow surface with wet avalanches. This could start this afternoon at lower elevations. It's the first day of May, and the sun will have a significant impact on the new snow. It won’t take much sun for the new snow to start sluffing down-slope. With snow depths around a foot or more, there will be enough new snow for sluffs to entrain additional snow creating larger piles at the bottoms of slopes or in terrain traps.
This is the last day of 10-zone forecasts for the season. We will continue to issue daily regiona (Northern, Central, and Southern Mountains) forecasts and danger ratings through May. Get daily updates at our website colorado.gov/avalanche and please continue to send us your observations!