Avalanche Forecast

Cool with light snow showers at times. Light snow accumulations expected with moderate ridge top winds, mostly from the NW. This should not significantly change the current danger and expect mostly shallow and stable snow conditions. 

If in areas receiving greater new snow, watch for wind transport building shallow wind slabs near ridges.

The recent warm, sunny weather has melted much of the early season snowpack and exposed terrain hazards. Expect terrain hazards with poorly covered rocks, vegetation and creeks, particularly on south-facing terrain, at lower elevations, and on exposed ridges where wind events have stripped much of the seasons snowcover.

Following 12 days of high pressure the first front crossed the Olympics early Friday. It wasn't much, with only a brief period of light rain and snow with no accumulation of new snow as of Friday afternoon. 

The main effect of the light rain was to destroy any remaining weak surface hoar or near surface facets that may have persisted on northerly aspects. 

The warm and sunny weather over the past 12 days has done a number on the snowpack in the Hurricane Ridge area, revealing vastly more snow free areas, especially on solar aspects and anywhere near ridgelines. The most consistent snowpack remains on shaded northerly aspects below any ridgelines where the snowpack height averages about 3-4 feet.

The overall snowpack is stable and settled old snow sits over the strong Thanksgiving crust about 1 foot below the surface. Surface conditions vary, dominated by refreezing melt-freeze crusts on most aspects.

No human-triggered avalanches have been reported in over a week. Some natural small loose wet slides have occurred on mainly steep sun exposed slopes over the last week, but have become much less frequent in recent days. Active wind loading has not been observed since late last week. 

Observations

NWAC Professional Observer Matt Schonwald was in the Hurricane Ridge area on Friday, December 15th. The big takeaway is the dramatic difference the snowpack has undergone over the past 12 days of high pressure, sunshine and very mild temperatures. The average height of snow on shaded slopes near treeline away from ridges is consistently between 3-4 feet deep. There were no avalanche concerns in the overall strong snowpack, where it remained!

Surface crusts dominated the conditions with many sun and wind exposed terrain void of snow.