Central Sierra Nevada

Avalanches remain unlikely today. Travel with caution in the backcountry to avoid hitting the many rocks, logs, and stumps showing through or barely hidden by the shallow snowpack. The likelihood of avalanches will increase substantially tomorrow as new snowfall loads on top of the weak snowpack found throughout much of the forecast area.

Normal caution

One more day of LOW avalanche danger before things begin to change. The existing snowpack in much of our traditional avalanche terrain is composed of weak, sugary faceted snow, especially at treeline and below treeline on NW-N-NE-E-SE aspects. Without a slab on top of this weak snow, avalanches remain unlikely today. This will change tomorrow with high intensity snowfall and substantial new snow accumulation expected to rapidly build a slab on top of our weak snowpack. Starting tomorrow the likelihood of avalanches occurring will increase dramatically. 

While snow surface conditions are heavily wind damaged above treeline, faceting has been observed on the surface of old snow that was densely wind packed. Fairly consistent, softer snow surface conditions exist where the weakest snowpack is found on more shaded and wind protected near treeline and below treeline slopes. The more shaded and wind protected an open slope is, the weaker the snowpack found there.

Some thin and superficial melt-freeze surface crust has developed in sun exposed areas on a variety of aspects. With just 1 to 2 feet of snow on the ground in most areas, there are a lot of obstacles that are protruding from the snow surface or buried just beneath the snow surface. This includes rocks, bushes, logs, tree stumps, open water, dirt, etc.