Snow and rain continue to place stressors on the snowpack.
Natural and human-triggered avalanches should be expected.
Snow and rain continue to accumulate and create a heavy load on a weak surface hoar layer in many areas. Expect to find reactive storm slabs in areas where it is not raining.
A mix of snow and rain will make wet loose avalanches likely at lower elevations.
Local operators produced numerous storm slab avalanches with the use of explosives on Monday.
Several size one to two natural and skier-triggered avalanches were reported in our region this past weekend. Many of these were remotely triggered and ran on the buried surface hoar layer. These avalanches occurred at treeline elevation and on all aspects.
By Wednesday morning up to 40 mm of precipitation falling as rain and/or snow will have been added to the snowpack. This heavy load will be weighing on up to 40 cm of snow that fell this weekend. The layer of greatest concern, large buried surface hoar, can be found just below this recent snow.
On steep south-facing slopes, this surface hoar sits on a thin sun crust. At higher elevations, the weekend's snow will have formed wind slabs on north and east-facing slopes.
The mid-pack is generally well-settled. Lower in the snowpack a crust with sugary facets beneath it can be found 20 cm off the ground.
Tuesday Night
Cloudy, 5 to 10 cm accumulation of rain and snow with up to 20 in the far east, alpine winds southwest 25 to 35 km/h, freezing level as high as 2000 m.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy, 15 to 20 cm accumulation above 1500 m and rain in the valley, alpine winds westerly 25 to 35 km/h, freezing level at starting at 2000 m and decreasing throughout the day.
Thursday
Cloudy with possible sunny breaks, 2 cm accumulation, alpine winds west 10 to 20 km/h, treeline temperatures around -6 °C.
Friday
Mix of sun and cloud, up to 8 cm accumulation, alpine winds west 5 to 15 km/h, treeline temperatures around -8 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
