Avalanche Forecast

Another dry, sunny and warm day is expected Wednesday. Freezing levels should again exceed 10,000 feet and along with light winds, causing areas of wet surface snow. Clearing overnight Tuesday should allow for the recent rain soaked upper snow layers to drain further, consolidate and allow for a thin surface crust to form. 

While wet snow avalanches should be unlikely, some shallow surface wet snow may make it possible to initiate a small loose-wet slide on some steep, mostly southerly facing slopes during the warmest part of the day. Watch for areas where surface snow is becoming wet for more than the top few inches.

From 1 to over 3 inches of rain fell over the Cascade east slopes from Sunday night to Monday evening, following about 6-12 inches of snowfall that accumulated prior to the warming. It is difficult to assess just how impactful the warming and rain was along the east slopes, especially in the northern part, where more precipitation fell as snow prior to the full warming Monday. At higher elevations near 7000 feet in the north, there may have only been a light amount of rain that fell before precipitation ended later Monday, however temperatures climbed well above freezing, especially Tuesday. 

No observations were received Monday or Tuesday, however the rain and warming should have caused widespread avalanches involving any recent snow received before the substantial warming arrived Sunday night. The rain reached to near the Cascade crest elevations, thus essentially resetting the snowpack, with the possible exception of the highest terrain in the northeast part.. The rain should have eliminated most, if not all, layers of concern in the upper snowpack, leaving behind wet but draining upper snow layers.

We'll await more detailed impacts of the rain later in the week, as conditions will become more amenable to making observations.