Choose mellow terrain or indoor activities while the snowpack adjusts to rapid change.
Heavy snow, rain and extreme wind are increasing avalanche danger and decreasing comfort.
A combination of buried surface hoar, facets, and old crust may become reactive with the addition of new snow or rain. Be wary of larger triggers like falling cornices, motorized vehicles, or smaller avalanches in motion.
With new snow, strong winds, and warm temperatures, storm slabs will quickly become reactive anywhere that dry or moist snow starts to pile up.
Wet loose avalanches are expected on steep slopes as the rain line gets higher and soaks the upper snowpack.
On Thursday, several small (up to size 1) natural and human triggered wind slab avalanches were reported in the recent storm snow.
Widespread natural avalanche activity should be expected heading into the weekend as a series of storms brings heavy snowfall and rain.
At higher elevations, new snow continues to pile up over old wind-affected snow, facets, surface hoar, and/or a melt-freeze crust. The new snow doesn't seem to be sticking well to the old surface. In exposed terrain, the wind has redistributed the storm snow into fresh wind slabs on leeward slopes.
On Saturday, the rain will be reaching higher, up to mountaintops in some places, soaking surfaces that were previously dry.
A widespread crust, sometimes accompanied by a thin layer of weak facets, was buried 30-70 cm beneath predominantly low-density snow before the storm.
The mid and lower snowpack contains no other layers of concern.
Friday Night
Cloudy with moderate rain below 1500 m, 5 to 15 cm of snow above. 60 to 75 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high 1 °C.
Saturday
Cloudy with heavy rain below 1000 m, 20 to 40 cm of snow above. Possibly much more on the west side of the Island. 70 to 100 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high 2 °C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with moderate rain below 1500 m, 10 to 20 cm above. Possibly much more on the west side of the Island. 30 to 50 km/h south ridgetop wind. Freezing level around 1500 m.
Monday
Mostly cloudy with light to moderate rain below 1200 m. 5 to 15 cm of snow above. Possibly much more on the west side and south end of the Island. 50 to 70 km/h southwest ridgetop wind in the morning, getting lighter and shifting to southeast through the day. Freezing level around 1300 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
