Northwest Coastal

Good

Tonight and Monday: An arctic ridge is building and is there to stay for a little while. Expect mainly sunny skies, moderate to strong NE winds, and cold tempreratures (-15 C in the alpine).Tuesday: The ridge is gaining more strength spreading more dry and cold weather. Moderate NE winds, partly cloudy skies, alpine temperatures around -18 C.Wednesday: More of the same. Mainly clear skies, cold temperatures but winds should diminish to lighter speeds from the N.

Multiple skier triggered slab avalanches size 1 in the alpine were reported yesterday.

The 5-10 cm of recent snow has been redistributed by N and recently by SE winds creating pockets of relatively thin windslabs on immediate lee features in the alpine and at treeline. These windslabs are sitting on weak surfaces like a crust or on the late January surface hoar layer. It has been reported that they are reactive to skier traffic. A well settled mid and lower snowpack is resting on basal facets, which is a concern especially in thin snowpack areas at higher elevations. At the surface of the snowpack, there is widespread growth of surface hoar and surface facetting that will continue with the forecasted clear and cold temperatures.