Northwest Inland

Be alert to conditions that change with aspect and elevation.

Our limited field data suggests a natural avalanche cycle occurred in the past few days as rain and warm temperatures infiltrated the region. Slab avalanches up to size 2 were reported in the Smithers and Seaton areas.

If you head to the backcountry please consider submitting your observations to the Mountain Information Network.

New snow accumulates atop a moist, and in some places isothermal, snowpack from rain in the past few days. Strong winds will create heavily wind-affected surfaces and redistribute new snow into fresh wind slabs.

We'll need to reassess whether two surface hoar layers in the mid-snowpack have survived or been cleaned out by the rain.

Deeper in the snowpack, a rain crust from early November seems to be bonding well to the surrounding snow.

Thursday Night

Cloudy with up to 5 mm of precipitation. 40 to 60 km/h southwest ridge top wind. Freezing level drops to 1600 m. Treeline temperature 0 °C.

Friday

Mostly cloudy with up to 10 cm of new snow. 40 to 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level 1400 m. Treeline temperature -1 °C.

Saturday

Cloudy with up to 5 cm of new snow. 30 to 50 km/h south ridge top wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C.

Sunday

A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries. 30 to 50 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind-affected terrain.
• Keep in mind that the high density of wet avalanches can make them destructive.