Strong to extreme winds Thursday night and Friday will build wind slabs in exposed terrain at upper elevations. Watch for areas with stiff or chalky looking snow.
Summary
Confidence
Moderate - Due to the number of field observations
Weather Forecast
TONIGHT: Flurries. Accumulation up to 4 cm. Ridge wind strong to extreme, southeast. Alpine temperature near -14. Freezing level valley bottom.FRIDAY: Cloudy, light flurries. Accumulation up to 2 cm. Ridge wind moderate to strong, south. Alpine temperature near -10. Freezing level 600 m.SATURDAY: Mix of sun and cloud. Ridge wind moderate to strong, east. Alpine temperature near -5. Freezing level 1100 m.SUNDAY: Cloudy, light flurries. Accumulation up to 2 cm. Ridge wind moderate, southwest. Alpine temperature near -5. Freezing level 1400 m.
Avalanche Summary
A natural, solar triggered size 2 avalanche was reported on Wednesday morning in the Howson range, as well as skier triggered size 1 storm slab releases on a buried sun crust (30 cm deep) on a southeast aspect at 1700 m.Friday of last week, a natural avalanche cycle up to size 2-3 occurred in response to storm snow loading.
Snowpack Summary
From 20 cm up to 40-50 cm of recent storm snow sits above a variety of crusts on all but high north aspects.Weak layers buried around March 19th are roughly 40 cm below the surface. These weak layers include surface hoar on shaded aspects at high elevations and hard crust layers on solar aspects and below treeline.Near the bottom of the snowpack, weak and sugary facets are found in shallow, rocky snowpack areas. Storm slabs have stepped down to these facets and producing very large avalanches in northern parts of the region.
jmcbride,
Avalanche Canada
