Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to the number and quality of field observations

A ridge of high pressure continues to dominate the weather pattern over western Canada. Current conditions are not forecast to move out of the area until Tuesday or Wednesday next week. In the meantime, an above-freezing layer (AFL) of air will persist in the region and continue to bring warm temperatures to elevations between 1500 and 3000m. This has resulted in temperatures as high as +7c in some parts of the region. Arctic air pooling in the valley bottoms will keep the temperatures well below freezing until the next storm system flushes out the cold air.

Few reports of avalanche activity from yesterday, but some snowballing and small loose-wet  slides from warm temperatures on steep solar aspects. On north aspects there have been reports of small wind slabs, and loose, dry snow sluffing on steep north facing slopes

The snowpack is extremely variable at this time, with wind scoured North facing slopes at treeline and above. South facing slopes have wind slabs at tree line and above, and may be hiding surface hoar from the previous spell of cold clear weather. Surface facetting has been observed in the region as a result of the recent cold weather and clear skies, and surface hoar up to 9mm in size has been reported in sheltered locations below 1700m. There are a number of surface hoar layers now buried in the snowpack that at present have been unreactive, with the most recent  buried on Nov 24th.  In shallow snowpack areas especially on northern aspects, there are reports of weak facetted layer at the base of the snowpack. With the recent warm temperatures, expect sun crust on all solar aspects above 1500 metres.