Red Snow At Night - Skiers Take Warning
UPDATE 4/9: Below is a satellite image from the 3rd showing the blowing dust in northeast Arizona (thanks Margaret @ USGS) - you can get more on the SSEC Blog.
UPDATE 4/8: I have also posted links and a video here from Internet news sources.
ORIGINAL POST: User Bobo1 on our Photo Gallery, from Silverthorne, Colorado [Google Map] writes: "We received 10" of snow in Silverthorne today. At about the 5" level the snow turned red for about a 1/4". Any ideas?" Here are his photos:
LAST 5 PHOTOS FROM BOBO1:
There was a rumor posted on a white board at the Vail ski area that the red color was from the Mount Redoubt eruption, but as someone pointed out on the Forum that reported this, ash is grey and the "flow" that day was from the Southwest. By flow, they may mean "upper level winds" which would actually carry the dust -- the surface winds were north during the snow, according to the (nearby) Denver airport, which, itself, did not report dust, nor did any other Colorado station that day. User pkelley on that Forum goes on to explains the local effects:
The CAIC (Colorado Avalanche Information Center) confirmed the dust existed on Friday and again today, but didn't say specifically where it came from. Apparently, layers of dust create avalanche problems:
