Northwest Coastal

Rising freezing levels, heavy precipitation, strong winds, and a layer or recently buried surface hoar are a recipe for High avalanche danger!

Moderate

A series of powerful storms is going to wallop the coast over the coming days bringing heavy precipitation and strong winds.  Tuesday could see snowfall accumulations of between 25 and 40cm. with another 30cm expected by Friday.  Winds will be strong from the SW and freezing levels should stay below 1500m.

Recent reports of natural, rider and remotely triggered avalanches from the mountains around Shames suggest that the load on a layer of recently buried surface hoar has reached critical levels.

Up to 70 cm of new storm snow may now overlie a variety of old surfaces including crusts, facets and surface hoar.  The distribution of surface hoar is definitely my biggest knowledge gap, although it has been reported well into the alpine in the Bear Pass.