Waterton Lakes

Freezing levels are rising to above ridgetop and a mix of ran and snow will fall during the forecast period.

Exercise caution on steeps slopes with moist surface snow. Wet avalanches may run bigger and farther with a solid crust underneath to slide on.

• A moist or wet snow surface, pinwheeling, and natural avalanches are all indicators of a weakening snowpack.
• Recent strong wind means wind slabs may be found farther downslope than expected.

Moderate

• We are uncertain due to a limited number of field observations.

One size 2 wind slab avalanche and a few wet loose avalanches to size 1.5 were observed in the past few days.

Strong winds continue to redistribute snow into wind slabs and create widespread wind-affected surfaces. The surface snow is moist to 2000m on all aspects with rising the freezing level. A crust is down 20-40cm and 2-8 cm thick with several other crusts deeper in the snowpack. The mid and lower snowpack is generally well settled with total snowpack depth ranging from 130-220 cm at treeline and in the alpine. 40-120cm below treeline.

Wednesday

Scattered showers, 4 mm of rain/snow. Low of 2 °C. High of 3 °C. Wind gusting to 60 km/h. Freezing level of 2500 m.

Thursday

Isolated showers. Low of 0 °C. High of 4 °C. Wind gusting to 65 km/h. Freezing level of 2700 m.

Friday

Scattered showers, 5 mm rain/snow. Low of 4 °C. High of 8 °C. Wind gusting to 70 km/h. Freezing level of 3000 m.

Current weather forecast: Mountain Weather Forecast