South Columbia

Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather is uncertain on Saturday

Overnight and Saturday: Dry and cool overnight with no precipitation. Light precipitation starting in the morning, expect 5-10 cms during the day. Winds becoming strong Southerly on Saturday. Freezing level at valley bottoms.Sunday: Light to moderate precipitation can be expected on Sunday as an upper trough moves across the interior. Moderate Westerly winds during the day are forecast to diminish to light Northwesterly overnight. Freezing level at valley bottoms.Monday: Continued light precipitation. Temperatures cooling off to about -10.0 in the alpine overnight.

Some loose snow releases up to size 2.0 were reported during the solar warming and inverted temperatures on Thursday. Some thin wind slabs continue to be released by skiers and riders. Surface sluffing continues in steep terrain.

A thin layer of dry cold snow has buried recent surface hoar layers. Surface hoar growth resulted in bigger crystals observed at treeline and below (up to 15mm). In protected areas, the surface hoar continues into the alpine but crystal size is significantly smaller and distribution is patchy. Near surface faceting has penetrated the upper snowpack as deep as 30cm, keeping the surface snow soft. The patchy sun from the past few days has left behind a thin, breakable crust on south and west aspects. In some areas (predominantly the northern half of the region) this crust is more widespread to other aspects due to the inversion conditions. Variable winds have built windslabs in many exposed locations at treeline and in the alpine The faceting process has softened many of the older windslabs, but fresh deposits have been reactive to rider traffic.The midpack is well settled. The crust/facet combo found deep in the snowpack is still present, but has become dormant.