Wind Slabs
- Hochgebirge
- Waldgrenze
- Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
- Wahrscheinlichkeit
- Likely
- Größe
- 1–2.5
The southwest wind will begin moving snow as soon as it hits the ground. Wind slabs will build during the day; wind slabs can be many times deeper than the snow that fell out of the sky. Below ridges and highpoints are places where wind blown snow often accumulates. Slabs can also form as wind moves across a slope and fills in depressions and gully features. Wind slabs can be tricky to judge because some lee features will have minimal wind loading while other features seem to collect a lot more blowing snow. On west, north, and east facing slopes wind slabs may build on a base of weak/sugary faceted snow. In this case, avalanches will propagate wider and run farther than usual.