Central Cascades

Avalanches will be unlikely on Thursday. Always look for signs of unstable snow on isolated terrain features. 

The big change is that I am taking the deep persistent slab problem off the forecast. Last week, snowpack tests showed the deep weak layers to be trending toward unreactive. The rain and warming last weekend destabilized the snowpack top to bottom and caused a cycle of wet slab avalanches. Some of these bigger avalanches failed on deeper layers or stepped down to deeper layers.  Now that the weather forecast is calling for cooler temperatures, I do not expect further avalanches to initiate on deep layers in the snowpack. 

Cooling temperatures and absence of rain have alleviated the wet avalanche problems. On Wednesday, the snow surface near and above treeline was firm after an overnight refreeze. The snow surface below treeline was still a bit slushy. I expect it to get a solid refreeze overnight. 

Many of the big cornices broke off during the rainy and warm period over the last 5 days, Decreasing temperatures will also alleviate the cornice problem. Continue to be cautious around cornices, especially when approaching ridgetops.