{"id":43812,"date":"2023-06-05T06:37:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T06:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=43812"},"modified":"2023-06-06T05:30:24","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T05:30:24","slug":"snowmelt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2023\/06\/05\/snowmelt\/","title":{"rendered":"Landslides associated with rapid snowmelt in western North America in May 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Landslides associated with rapid snowmelt in western North America in May 2023<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Guest post by loyal reader Funkenbeachin<\/h5>\n

The NASA map below shows the difference in air temperature between 15 May 2023 and the 2014-2022 mean for the same date. The map, derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model<\/a>, depicts air temperatures at 2 metres above the ground. Dark red areas are where air temperatures reached more than 22\u00b0F (12\u00b0C) above the recent average:-<\/p>\n

\"Thermal

Thermal anomalies for 15 May 2023 compared with the long term average for the same date. Image from NASA GEOS.<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

A pattern of landslides associated with the resultant snowmelt is emerging.\u00a0 For example, the 14 May 2023 debris flow at Johnston Ridge Observatory Access Road, Mount Saint Helens<\/a> is associated with the thermal anomaly.<\/p>\n

Loyal reader Drew commented that the same unseasonably warm weather, and resultant snowmelt also triggered a long runout landslide from Mount Job [50.633514, -123.547214] in the Meager Volcanic Complex in British Columbia, on 12 May 2023. This landslide can seen on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The

The 12 May 2023 landslide from Mount Job in the Meager Volcanic Complex in British Columbia, Canada as shown on Sentinel-2 imagery<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The NOHRSC Equivalent Snow Water model<\/a> and NOHRSC station data<\/a> near the slide depict rapid snowmelt associated with the landside.<\/p>\n

Yet another snow melt related landslide appears to have occurred on Mount Shasta in California [41.434027, -122.211978] on 12 May 2023, and can be seen in Sentinel-2 imagery<\/a>:-<\/p>\n

\"The

The 12 May 2023 landslide on Mount Shasta, as seen in Sentinel-2 imagery<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n

The NOHRSC Equivalent Snow Water model<\/a> on 15 May 2023and NOHRSC station data from the Mount Shasta snow course station data for 1-30 May 2023<\/a> depict rapid snowmelt associated with the landside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several significant landslides associated with rapid snowmelt in western North America in May 2023, driven by exceptional temperatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":43819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4,469,959,725,8,48],"class_list":["post-43812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landslide-report","tag-canada","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-north-america","tag-satellite-imagery","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}