Lizard-Flathead

Storm slabs instabilities will take longer than usual to stabilize as cold temperatures persist through the rest of the week.

A buried surface hoar layer down 60 - 80 cm, is becoming primed for human triggering as the cohesion of the overlaying slab increases.

Numerous loose dry (slough) avalanches observed up to size 1.5, trigged naturally and by skier traffic on Thursday. A couple of small (size 1.5) storm slab avalanches were observed during explosive control work near ridgetops in treeline and alpine terrain on Thursday.

As the upper snowpack settles and gains cohesion we could potentially see larger slab avalanches, that have the potential to step down to deeper weak layers.

Another 20-30 cm has fallen since Wednesday morning. There is now a significant amount (up to 80cm) of low density snow (lacking cohesion) overlaying a potentially weak layer of surface hoar. The lower snowpack is made up of sugary facetted snow at all elevations. A widespread rain curst remains on the ground at the treeline and below treeline.

At treeline, snowpack depths range from 100-180 cm.

Thursday Night Cloudy with isolated flurries throughout the region, generally light westerly winds at ridgetop, treeline temperatures will be cold around -15 C. 

Friday 

Mostly cloudy with some sunny periods, moderate southwest wind at ridgetop and cold treeline temperatures persist at -15 to -20 C. 

A mix of sun and clouds, moderate southwest wind and colder temperatures persist, -15 to -20 C.

Cloudy with light snow amounts, moderate southwest wind and temperatures warming slightly to -8 C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Be aware of the potential for larger than expected storm slabs due to the presence of buried surface hoar.
• Early season avalanches at any elevation have the potential to be particularly dangerous due to obstacles that are exposed or just below the surface.