Loose Wet
- Alta montaña
- Límite del bosque
- Bajo el límite del bosque
- Probabilidad
- Possible
- Tamaño
- 1–2
Even though temperatures remained above freezing in many places last night, the snowpack should have radiated enough heat into the clear skies for at least a thin refreeze. Today's intense sunshine and warm weather should melt through this refreeze quickly. On steep slopes, the wet loose snow that forms on the surface could slide downhill gathering more wet snow as it moves. These wet loose avalanches may start small (D1) but could end up entraining enough wet snow to cause problems (D2) on longer slopes. Terrain traps like cliffs, gullies, creekbeds, etc could make the smaller wet loose avalanches have larger consequences. The most sun-exposed E-SE-S-SW-W aspects will be the most prone to wet snow instabilities, but the high sun angles and warm temperatures could allow wet snow to form on some of the NW-N-NE aspects as well.
Snow conditions will change from supportable to wet loose quickly today. Signs that wet loose avalanches may be possible include things like rollerballs, pinwheels, wet sticky snow, or ankle-deep wet snow. Recreating before the snow becomes unsupportable or using terrain less steep than 30 to 35 degrees without steeper slopes above can help minimize exposure to potential wet snow instabilities.