Northwest Coastal

This is the last avalanche bulletin with danger ratings for this region this season.

Poor - Due to the number of field observations

Warm and windy overnight with overcast skies and some light precipitation. Coastal areas should see up to 15 mm of precipitation on Monday with a freezing level around 1800 metres. Inland areas are likely to get less than 5 mm of precipitation as the system moves south along the coast and is not forecast to push inland. Stormy conditions are expected to continue in the Northwest.

We have a report from the Nass Range near Rosswood from Friday, of a larger slab avalanche with 100 cm crown that we suspect was from a convex feature in the alpine on a westerly aspect. On Thursday, numerous natural slab avalanches up to size 2 were reported and a widespread loose wet avalanche cycle occurred when the sun poked out in some areas. A larger size 3 slab was seen from across the valley at Shames, maybe a day old or so by now. On Tuesday, the region saw a natural cycle up to size 3 was from steep alpine and treeline terrain. Reports suspect that some of these naturals are stepping down to the old interfaces buried April 9 th and mid- March. With temperatures rising into the alpine, cloudy skies and light rain forecast, the snowpack will deteriorate and natural avalanche activity will continue. Lower elevations which have become rain soaked and natural loose wet avalanches from steeper terrain features are expected.

At upper elevations 35- 80 cm of recent storm snow has blanketed the region. The new snow has been redistributed by strong southwest winds into wind slabs on leeward slopes. Solar aspects may have a new sun crust. The lack of bond between the new wind slabs and storm slabs over the older snow surfaces buried on April 9 th (surface hoar, crusts and facets) is the primary concern. The March 25th persistent surface hoar / crust layer reportedly became reactive with the recent storm, however; observations are very limited and it may have just been in a localized area. With forecast warming well above mountain peaks this pwl should remain on your radar, it may re-awaken, initiating very-large and destructive avalanches. Moist rain soaked snow exists at lower elevations.