Avalanche forecast

Northwest Inland

Dec 25 – 26, 2015Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
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Highlights

Strong winds and moderate to heavy snow fall are expected to drive a natural avalanche cycle on Saturday.

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–3
    Storm slabs will build rapidly, especially in wind loaded features at tree line and in the alpine. The new load will test the strength of the thin, weak snowpack.

Confidence

Moderate

Weather Forecast

Snow is expected to start falling early Saturday morning becoming heavy in the afternoon. Up to 15cm is expected through the day and overnight with another 5 forecast for Sunday morning. Monday looks to be mainly dry. An Arctic front just inland will keep things cool with freezing levels at valley bottom. Strong southwest winds are expected to build on Saturday becoming moderate to light westerlies on Sunday and northeasterly by Monday as a ridge moves inland.

Avalanche Summary

No recent avalanche have been reported.

Snowpack Summary

I suspect that the recent cold temperatures have faceted out the upper snowpack. As of Friday ski pen at treeline was reported to be about 20-30 cm and. This means there is lots of low density surface snow available to blow around when the winds pick up. We're still dealing with a thin, early-season snow pack for much of the Northwest Inland region. Between 80 and 100 cm of snow can be found at tree-line in the south and west of the region, with closer to 60 cm in the east. A weak basal layer probably exists in most areas.

Regions covered