Avalanche forecast

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Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Wed
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Another wet, windy storm is here. You should expect stormy conditions and large, dangerous avalanches.  You could easily trigger avalanches in steep terrain, particularly where the wind forms deeper drifts. As the day progresses, rising temperatures will lead to wet avalanches. Choose conservative, low-angle slopes. 

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely
    Size
    1–2

    Cooling temperatures, significant snow, and extreme winds will create sensitive wind slabs across the terrain at mid- to upper elevations. These slabs may form over slick crusts from the recent rain and be easy to trigger or run naturally. Be particularly diligent in avoiding steep slopes where you identify blowing snow or deep pillow-like drifts. These wind speeds often form wind slabs lower down the slope than expected or in unusual locations. 

    This messy storm also brings warming temperatures, so you could also see storm slabs in wind-sheltered terrain. Pay close attention as you travel for signs such as shooting cracks, recent avalanches, or test slopes that produce small avalanches. These are all signs to head towards lower-angle terrain even in sheltered areas. 

    (12/6/2025)

    A skier-triggered wind slab avalanche from last week near Blue Lake. 6700ft, WNW. SS-AS-D1.5-I

    Photo: Will Govus

  • Loose Wet

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

    Warming throughout the day means rain will creep towards the mid-elevations. As heavy wet snow or rain falls on the dry snow from overnight, wet avalanches will begin to become a problem. If it is raining on dry snow, or you begin to see rollarballs and fresh avalanches, move to lower-angle slopes to minimize your risk of triggering a slide. 

    Mid-elevations are the most likely places for large wet avalanches, since there is potential for significant snow accumulation before a transition to rain. At lower elevations, we expect smaller wet avalanches due to low snow cover and a quicker transition to rain. 

    (12/11/2025)

    A very large wet avalanche above Hart's Pass Road. This likely ran between Dec 9-11th.

    Photo: Justin O’Hara

Avalanche Discussion

Monday was a warm, wet day at Washington Pass, bringing around 1.6" of rain at least to 7000ft. Harts Pass fared a bit better, and we saw around 3-4inches of snow accumulate at 6500ft. This stormy pattern continues with lower snow levels overnight on Monday. However, the temperature rollercoaster will persist, and temperatures will once again climb into Tuesday evening. It is difficult to predict how much snow will accumulate before warming affects our mid-elevation band. So pay attention to new snow depths. The more fresh snow, the larger the avalanches. The mountains of this zone managed to withstand the warm temperatures for most of the storms since December 5th. The snowpack grew substantially (+30-50 inches) before rain reached above 6800ft for multiple hours on Wednesday night. WSDOT observers working on clearing mud and debris from the road reported thick surface crusts up to Washington Pass. They also reported a widespread natural avalanche cycle that deposited large debris piles on Hwy 20 at multiple locations. Some of these slides traveled long distances across elevation bands and carried mud, rocks, and trees. 

Flooding, washouts, and landslides have affected many communities. Expect difficult access and challenging travel at low elevations. Information has been limited to weather station data and road reports for a few days, so our confidence in the forecast is lower than usual. 

With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.

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