Wind Slabs
- Alta montaña
- Límite del bosque
- Bajo el límite del bosque
- Probabilidad
- Possible
- Tamaño
- 2
Winds will be light today, and a few inches of fresh snow will hide drifts from earlier in the week. People could trigger slab avalanches of previously wind drifted snow in steep upper and mid elevation terrain. This week's squirrly winds easily picked up fresh powder on the surface and deposited it in deceleration zones on sugary faceted snow. The drifting from winds from different dirrections created stiff wind slabs in perhaps unexpected places. Some wind slabs will remain unstable for a while because the sugary snow that they formed on is a buried persistent weak layer.
- Avoid recently or previously drifted snow on steep slopes at mid and upper elevations on the lee side of ridges and in and around terrain features like sub-ridges, gullies, and cliff bands.
- Avalanches of wind drifted snow failing on a persistent weak layer could be triggered remotely, from a distance, or below.
Chains of facets under a weakening sun-crust in the upper part of the snowpack. 2-25-2022