Avalanche forecast

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
View on map

Avalanche danger

Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
Open full map
Out of date — this forecast expired 6 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Rain at all elevations will result in a wet and weak snowpack. Whether wet avalanches or deeper instabilities, these slides will be difficult to predict. Your best mitigation tool will be to avoid large, steep slopes where these slides may be more common.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2

    Unfortunately, rain is expected to reach the highest peaks in our zone during this warm and wet storm. By the time Saturday morning rolls around, you'll be dealing with a saturated surface and the potential for wet avalanches.

    You may be able to push wet snow on steep slopes, or natural slides could occur. If blobs of snow fall from rocky ledges or a sagging cornice collapses, these slides could be large or even result in slabs pulling out on the slopes below.  

    About a foot of new snow stacked up before the rain hit on Friday. Shallow storm slabs were reported in this new snow in recent days. The 3/4 interface, where many of these failures occurred, could produce small, wet slabs on Saturday in isolated locations.

    Any triggered wet slide will be heavy and hard to maneuver away from if you get caught. So be leery of steep slopes where these slides can get a head of steam and barrel downhill, especially near terrain traps.

    (3/4/2026)

    Wet avalanche debris on the apron of Chair Peak. These slides occurred on 3/4 as temperatures warmed. Expect widespread wet avalanche activity in the mountains this weekend.

    Photo: Trevor Kostanich

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    If this problem is going to roar back to life, it will likely be this weekend as the rain works its way down toward the 2/7 interface. 

    We know a weak structure exists throughout the zone. It has shown signs of improvement over the past week. But until we either wipe this problem out with rain or cool down to build a burly crust over the weak layers, we can't quite write it off.

    Any triggered avalanche, whether loose, slab, cornice collapse, or other, may stress our weak layers.  Give large, steep slopes a wide berth where these slides are more likely to be very large and dangerous.

    (3/3/2026)

    A snow profile on a sunny aspect highlighting the main persistent weak layer of concern. 

    Photo: Dallas Glass

Avalanche Discussion

We're going to see ups and downs in both stability and freezing level over the next few days. On Friday night, expect rain to soak our mountains up to ridgecrest, resulting in a natural wet avalanche cycle. Rain should be slowing down by Saturday morning, but the damage will already be done. A wet and soggy snowpack will likely await you, with lingering wet instabilities. The question becomes how much more natural activity will be present? And will our persistent weak layers become activated?

Time will give us the answers to these questions. But after the instability period caused by these warm temps and liquid precipitation, we'll likely be heading for greater overall stability come Monday'ish. Once temperatures finally cool, we'll have a new surface crust and be able to finally put the 2/7 and 2/13 buried weak layers to bed for the time being. Maybe they'll come back to be a problem later in the spring, but that's for another forecast.

This rain won't help the already below-average coverage in the mountains. Holes, creeks, bushes, and rocks are just some of the natural hazards that have plagued us all season and will continue to do so.

Regions covered