North Columbia

Continued cold weather with little new snow expected. Watch for pockets of wind slab at higher elevations.

High -

Clear and cold overnight with light northeast winds, alpine low temperatures around -20. Clear and cold on Thursday with light northeast winds. Cloud developing on Friday with the winds shifting to the southeast and increasing to moderate. Some flurries or light snow expected Friday night or Saturday. The Pacific frontal system is not expected to impact the northern interior.

No new reports of avalanches from this region. Size 2.0-3.0 natural avalanches that occurred during or after the last storm continued to be reported from both the Monashee and Selkirk ranges.

The weekend storm system typically brought 40-70cm of new snow to the region with strong southwest wind in the alpine. The wind has redistributed the storm snow into leeward features in wind exposed terrain. In some areas, the recent storm snow may sit over a layer of small surface hoar. There is some uncertainty regarding the distribution of this surface hoar in the region but it was reported in a couple locations in the Monashees west of Revelstoke. The mid-November crust is now typically down 1-1.5m in the snowpack. Test results on this layer have been highly variable ranging from sudden and easy to unreactive. While there has not been much avalanche activity on this layer yet, it has many professionals concerned. It will be important to track how this layer evolves, especially with the current period of cold weather. Below the crust the snowpack is generally well settled and is reported to be moist at lower elevations. The snowpack depth tapers off substantially below around 1700m elevation and many early season hazards are still a concern.