Loose Wet
- Alta montaña
- Límite del bosque
- Bajo el límite del bosque
- Probabilidad
- Possible
- Tamaño
- 1–2
Clear skies overnight should have allowed the snowpack to radiate enough heat out into the atmosphere for it to refreeze despite above freezing temperatures in many places last night. Strong sun and warm weather today will melt through this refreeze quickly creating a layer of wet snow on many slopes. Wet loose avalanches will be possible as the day warms up. Some of these could entrain enough snow to cause problems for backcountry travelers especially if they occur on long steep slopes or around terrain traps like gullies, cliffs, and creeks that magnify the consequences of these avalanches. Wet snow will be most prevalent on the E-SE-S-SW-W aspects, but some wet snow could also form on northerly aspects due to the high sun angles at this time of year.
Signs of potentially unstable wet snow include rollerballs, pinwheels, boot-top deep wet snow, or recent wet loose avalanches. Traveling on lower-angle terrain that is not below avalanche terrain or timing your travel to be off the snow before it gets too wet represent good strategies to avoid wet snow problems.