East Slopes Central

The atmospheric river train keeps coming. This round will bring lower elevation snow and extreme winds, followed by warming temperatures on Tuesday. Prepare for severe storm weather and potentially dangerous avalanche conditions if you make it through the myriad of obstacles and bare ground to access the upper elevations. 

Monday brought 0.5-2 inches of rain across East Central, with higher totals near the Cascade Crest. Temperatures remained unseasonably warm with most weather stations recording highs well into the 40°Fs. We will see a brief cooldown overnight on Monday, which should bring 5-10 inches of snow to mid-elevations. Unfortunately for our snowpack, temperatures will once again begin to climb, and rain is likely to reach the upper elevations by Tuesday night. This messy storm package also comes with strong to extreme winds. 

If you make it to those higher elevations on Tuesday, be prepared for widespread, sensitive avalanche conditions. Large wind slabs at upper elevations and wet avalanches where it rains on dry snow surfaces. Both wind slabs and wet avalanches may run on underlaying crusts and be easy to trigger. Shooting cracks and recent avalanches are red-flag signs of instability. To reduce your risk, make careful observations and choose conservative, low-angle terrain. 

Communities still grappling with major infrastructure damage are facing new flooding warnings and wind advisories. If you plan to push it into the mountains on Monday, ensure you are prepared with the knowledge and resources to have a safe and successful day. Emergency resources are stretched thin, and we have extremely limited snowpack data due to difficult access. We know that, in general, continuous snow cover begins around 6000 ft, and this fresh round of snow will either fall on bare ground or slick crusts. 

Finally, it goes without saying that exposed hazards abound. Watch for shallowly buried rocks, trees, and high-flowing creeks. Recognize that even small slides can have big consequences when the snowpack is so thin.

With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.