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RegisterFeb 27th, 2016–Feb 28th, 2016
Mt Hood.
Dangerous avalanche conditions are expected by Sunday afternoon especially in the near and above tree line. Careful snow evaluation and conservative decision-making should be essential on Sunday.
A stronger cold front will cross the Northwest on Sunday. Expect increasing strong alpine winds and significantly increasing moderate to heavy rain or snow on Sunday heaviest along the west slopes with lowering snow levels. New snow amounts of about 5-10 inches should be seen in the near and above tree line by the end of the daylight hours.
This weather should transport snow and build new wind slab on lee slopes through the day. This should be mainly on N to E slopes in the above and near tree line bands. Watch for firmer wind transported snow and surface snow cracking from the tips of your skiis or snowmobile.
New storm slab should also build through the day in areas that rapidly accumulate snow. This avalanche problem may work its way down into the upper treeline by the end of the day. Rapid snow accumulation is generally more than an inch or 2 an hour for several or more hours.
Dangerous avalanche conditions are expected by Sunday afternoon especially in the near and above tree line. Careful snow evaluation and conservative decision-making should be essential on Sunday.
The problem of loose wet avalanches will be left off the problem list on Sunday but watch for signs of significant wet snow at the lowest elevations.
Weather and Snowpack
The last storm cycle occurred late last week when about 2 feet of snow fell at Mt Hood from the 17th-20th. Some cornices and wind slabs formed during this period with triggered wind slabs reported last weekend.
Strong E-SE crest level winds in many areas Monday night and Tuesday of this week, redistributed surface snow and built new localized wind slabs on unusual west facing slopes. Some of these wind slabs were touchy earlier this week, but have stabilized quickly under the warm weather.Springlike weather under high pressure Wednesday and Thursday caused abundant sunshine with temperatures climbing into the upper 40's to mid 50's Thursday afternoon!
A weak front brought quite a bit of mostly rain to Mt Hood Friday night to Saturday morning.
The mid and lower snow pack along the west slopes should be a stable mix of crusts and layers of moist and rounded snow crystals.
Recent Observations
NWAC pro-observer Laura Green was in the Barlow Ridge area on Friday and found that tests gave only resistant compressive fractures at an interface at about 18 cm over a well saturated upper snowpack on all aspects.
The Mt Hood Meadows pro-patrol on Saturday reported little accumulation of new snow and no significant new layers in the above treeline. A wet consolidated upper snow pack was seen in the near and below treeline. Cornice releases gave a couple some size 1 and 2 wind slabs on an east slope at about 6500 feet that is commonly wind loaded.