Avalanche forecast

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
View on map

Avalanche danger

Wed
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
Open full map
Out of date — this forecast expired 7 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Even though the rain has stopped and the sun come out, the wet snow isn’t going anywhere. Sure, you might trigger a wet slide on a steep open slope, but don’t overlook the random natural avalanche. Keep tabs on what’s above your head and move quickly past overhead hazards.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    You might deal with all the flavors of wet avalanches on Tuesday: wet loose, wet slab, glide, and shed-o-lanche. Some slides you might trigger, a few could be isolated natural avalanches. Wet snow is tricky to forecast. When things get complex, it’s time to keep travel simple. 

    Wet, manky snow can be hard to get moving. However, if you manage to trigger a wet loose slide, it might gouge into old snow, and likely won’t stop until the bottom of the hill. If it grabs you, it probably isn't letting go and could result in a nasty ride through the cement mixer. 

    We aren’t expecting tons of natural avalanches, but often, “when things heat up, snow falls down.” Snow could shed from rocks and cliffs, the water might finally push the snowpack past its breaking point, or the entire season’s snowpack could glide on the ground. No matter how it happens, a natural wet avalanche would likely be big and ugly. You certainly don’t want to be in the way. So, limit how much time you spend underneath avalanche slopes. This isn’t the day to stop or hang out in the runout of any avalanche path.

    You could see a few natural wet avalanches like this on Tuesday. 

Avalanche Discussion

On Tuesday morning, the West Central zone will be fresh out of a multi-day soaking rain event. Most weather stations recorded 2.5- 5 inches of precipitation, most of which fell as rain. Yuck! Rain reached high above all but the tallest peaks in the zone. Now, skies are clearing, but temperatures are still warming. This wet, sloppy snow isn’t going anywhere. 

Wet snow avalanches are notoriously hard to forecast. We don’t expect the mountains to come apart on Tuesday (they might already have), but they probably aren’t stable either. Don’t trust wet snow like this. It's hard to predict and nearly impossible to assess. 

The wet, stormy weather certainly limited observations across the region on Sunday and Monday. A few new glide avalanches were reported near Snoqualmie Pass, and several wet avalanches were observed near Stevens Pass. Not surprising, given all the rain and warm temperatures. However, it’s worth noting that both of these zones picked up less water than the West Central. So, coming out of this storm, there may be more questions than answers. Maybe the sunshine will shed some light (pun intended) on the current conditions of the mountains and snowpack.

Regions covered