As the storm ends Sunday and cold clear weather arrives, Lingering wind slabs at upper elevations will be the snowpack primary concern.
Consistent strong winds and snow accumulation over the past 3 days have developed wind slabs. These will be easy to trigger, especially the ones that are sitting on a firm surface underneath. Expect to find them in most leeward and drifted slopes.
With up to 50cm of new snow accumulation and warm temps, some areas with high snowfall amount may have storm slab development. We have limited observations of this problem and suspect it will be short lived as cold temps arrive Monday.
Up to 50cm of new snow has fallen in the past 3 days. Strong west winds have created fresh wind slabs at treeline and above. Areas to the west received the most snow. These wind slabs may release easily on the various firm surfaces underneath. The Jan 30th surface hoar/sun crust layer exists 30-50 cm below the surface and is currently unreactive.
The forecast team had limited observations for Little Yoho Saturday. No new avalanche activity reported.
The moist Westerly flow will end Sunday morning as an arctic high moves into the forecast region. Sunday will be a transition day with partly cloudy skies as the cold Arctic air moves in. By Monday the high pressure system will bring clear skies, light winds and frigid temperatures down into the -30s.
