Vancouver Island

Rain to mountaintops continues to shrink the snowpack and create difficult travel conditions.

With a limited early-season snowpack, there are not many reports from the backcountry. There have been no recent reports of avalanches.

If you head into the mountains, please share any observations or photos on the MIN.

Another bout of heavy precipitation with high freezing levels will leave us with a soaked and shrinking snowpack everywhere other than the highest alpine terrain.

Snow depth varies rapidly with elevation. After this round of rain we expect there to be no snow below 1200 m, 40 cm at most just above tree line, and possibly small pockets of 80-100 cm in the high alpine.

Wednesday Night

Mostly cloudy. 2 to 10 mm of precipitation as snow or rain at treeline. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C. Freezing level 1400 m.

Thursday

Mostly cloudy. 1 mm of precipitation as snow or rain at treeline. 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 1100 m.

Friday

Cloudy. 10 to 15 mm of rain at treeline. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 2 °C. Freezing level 1900 m.

Saturday

Cloudy. 10 to 35 mm of rain at treeline. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 4 °C. Freezing level 2800 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avalanche activity is unlikely when a thick melt-freeze crust is present on the snow surface.
• Be alert to conditions that change with aspect and elevation.