Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Overnight and Monday: Light snow overnight combined with moderate Southwest winds and freezing levels around 500 metres. Snow becoming moderate to heavy in the morning bringing 10-15 cm combined with strong Southwest winds during the day. The freezing level is expected to climb up to about 1200 metres.Tuesday: Snow ending by morning as the freezing level slides back down to about 500 metres. Expect strong Southwest winds.Wednesday: The next pulse of moisture should start during the day. Expect strong Southwest winds combined with the snow.

No new avalanche activity reported since the cold arctic air moved into the region. Forecast new snow and strong winds may develop a new storm slab by morning.

Cold dry snow has started to bury the melt-freeze crusts and surface facets that developed over the past few cold days. Melt-freeze crusts developed on all aspects at lower elevations, and on all but Northerly aspects in the alpine. Last weeks very warm temperatures and periods of very strong solar radiation caused a great deal of settlement in the old storm slab above the early February weak layer. The February weak layer of crusts and facets has been reported to be rounding and bonding in areas where the old storm slab is 200 cm or deeper ( there is between 2-3 metres of snow above the weak layer in the Coquihalla area). Shallow snow pack areas where the old storm slab is closer to a metre or less continue to give sudden planar shears in snow profile tests ( there is about 60-80 cm above the weak layer in the Duffey Lake area). North aspects in the alpine may have had enough warming to settle the storm snow into a cohesive slab, but not enough to improve the weak layer bond. Big un-supported alpine North aspects are the most likely place to find a well preserved deeply buried February weak layer that may continue to allow for long propagations resulting in very large avalanches.