A shift in the weather will increase avalanche hazard fairly rapidly once it starts to snow. If you see anything of interest, remember to let us know by submitting an observation using the CAC Mobile app.
Summary
Confidence
Good on Sunday
Weather Forecast
A change in the weather pattern should bring initially light amounts of new snow to this area from MondaySunday: Dry and mainly sunny. Winds light initially, increasing to around 40 km/h from the W. Treeline temperatures around -14C.Monday: Flurries possible. Ridgetop winds gusting to around 40 km/h. Treeline temperatures around -12CTuesday: 5-10 cm new snow expected. Ridgetop winds 60-80 km/h. Treeline temperatures around -5C.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported.
Snowpack Summary
Wind slabs 10-40cm thick have formed over the last few days in the alpine on various aspects. At treeline and below in sheltered areas approximately 5-15cm of light dry snow overlies a variety of old surfaces including surface hoar and/or a melt freeze crust on solar aspects. The cold temperatures continue to facet the near surface layers. This may improve the ski and sledding quality of the surface snow in the short term, however it also has the potential to create a weak layer if it is buried later in the season. The deep persistent layers of facets and depth hoar remain near the bottom of the snowpack and in shallow areas the entire snowpack consists of these weak crystals, which appear to have become less reactive with the current cold and static weather pattern. We expect that there has been little improvement in the bonding of these persistent weak layers during this cold period and they may still "wake up" (become reactive again) later in the season.
jfloyer,
Avalanche Canada
