Tetons

Several inches of new snow has fallen on wet snow surfaces and a mostly stable snowpack. Temperatures cooled off overnight and are about 10 to 15 degrees colder than yesterday morning at 5 AM. Above 9,000 feet in areas where there has been 5 inches or more of new snow, a person could trigger an isolated pocket of a slab avalanche or a loose snow sluff on steep terrain. These hazards may increase with the daily warming and could have dangerous consequences on slopes with exposure or over terrain traps. As the day progresses, increased wind speed and new snowfall could also increase the hazard at the upper elevations. Backcountry travelers should monitor the change in weather and adjust their travel plans accordingly.

As a ridge of high pressure builds over the region, cloud cover will dissipate. By tomorrow afternoon, skies will be mostly sunny. Temperatures will cool off overnight into the teens and twenties and then warm into the thirties and forties. Ridgetop winds are expected to lessen overnight and be westerly at 10 to 15 miles per hour tomorrow. The general avalanche hazard is expected to be Low tomorrow. Cold temperatures overnight will form stout crusts at the surface of the snowpack. Due to the cold temperatures and the melting of the new snow, these crusts will be slow to break down. In isolated areas, where it is warm enough to melt surface crusts, small shallow wet slides could be triggered on steep terrain. These small wet slides could be deeper in areas with an isothermal snowpack. In locations that received more than 5 inches of snow, loose snow sluffing could occur on steep slopes, especially when in direct sunlight. Although the hazard is Low, backcountry travelers could encounter small slides that would be dangerous in exposed terrain or above terrain traps.