West Slopes Central

For Thursday, expect another day of calm, mild weather. There may be just enough sun to soften crusts on southerly aspects. While unlikely, fresh rollerballs, wet avalanches, or cracking in wind-stiffened snow would be signs of more elevated avalanche danger at upper elevations

Thursday will be mild with partly sunny skies. Overnight temperatures will allow crusts to freeze on southerly aspects, while weakening surfaces on northerly aspects. Clouds will build by mid-morning while still allowing some sun through. If traveling near the northern zone boundary or above 6,000ft, it's still a good idea to keep an eye out for signs of instability. This would be surfaces warming enough for wet avalanches on steep southerly aspects or cracking in older wind-drifted snow on leeward sides of ridges. We expect that these concerns are now in the past.

On Tuesday, an NWAC forecaster in the Highway 2 corridor found an overall lack of snow. Dry ground extended up to 5,000ft where scoured or melted. On the northerly aspects, there was 4 feet of snow on the ground. They reported a few small roller balls and wet avalanches from upper elevations. This last series of storms brought a decent amount of precipitation to the West Central zone, around 1.2-1.5 inches. However, weather stations showed little to no change in snow depth. You can expect surface crusts on southwest through southeast aspects. On other aspects above 5,500ft, you may find enough recent snow (3" or more) for softer travel.  

Unfortunately, these storms didn’t improve travel conditions or coverage. Punchy snow, breakable crust, icy slopes, and numerous obstacles continue to make travel challenging and, in some cases, dangerous. Plan for extra time to deal with these “early season” conditions.