Spring Conditions. Record breaking warm weather continues. Expect the likelihood of wet slab avalanches, cornice falls, and loose wet avalanches to increase during the heat of the day.
Summary
Weather Forecast
Clear overnight with light southwest winds and freezing levels down to 2000 metres. Sunny and HOT on Wednesday with light northeast winds and daytime freezing levels pushing 4000 metres.Hot and sunny on Thursday with light winds and freezing levels around 3500 metres. Convective cloud developing on Friday with a chance of showers and flurries in the afternoon.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches reported in this region. Most commercial operations have closed for the season, and data is becoming sparse. However, with the forecasted warm up and lack of overnight surface freezing, I would expect cornice failures and sporadic large wet slab avalanches.
Snowpack Summary
Monitoring the overnight freeze of the snow surface is very important during the spring. If the snow surface does not freeze overnight or if the crust is only a few cm thick, the effect of daytime heating and solar radiation will weaken the snowpack much more quickly than it would if there is a well frozen thick crust. This is because the crust must first melt before the sun can weaken the snowpack. Deeply buried weak layers in the mid snowpack and near the ground still have the potential to wake up and become active with a rapid warm up. While unlikely, releases on these deeply buried weak layers would result in very large avalanches. Glide cracks are widespread, active, and best avoided. Cornices are large, fragile, and could trigger deep slab avalanches that run to valley bottoms. Low elevation and thin snowpack areas have become isothermal, meaning the snowpack is 0 degrees Celsius throughout. An isothermal snowpack is more prone to full depth wet slab avalanches during the heat of the day.
