Northwest Coastal

Heavy snow and strong winds will elevate the avalanche hazard throughout Wednesday.

A few slab and loose avalanches (sz 1 to 2) were reported on Monday, all on southerly aspects and likely triggered by solar input on Monday afternoon.

With the current winds and forecast snow, we anticipate natural avalanche activity to occur throughout the day on Wednesday.

If you are out in the backcountry please consider filling out a MIN report.

Expect to find widespread wind-affected surfaces at higher elevations with up to 70 cm of recent snow being redistributed by strong to extreme alpine winds. In more sheltered areas this recent snow may overlie large, feathery surface hoar.

The mid snowpack contains several crusts from November that are generally well-bonded to the surrounding snowpack. The height of snow at treeline is roughly 150 cm and tapers rapidly below treeline.

Tuesday Night

Cloudy with 10 to 30 cm of snow, southwest alpine winds 70 to 110 km/h, treeline temperature -5 °C.

Wednesday

Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow, southwest alpine winds 50 to 60 km/h, treeline temperature -5 °C.

Thursday

Mix of sun and cloud with no precipitation, southwest alpine winds 40 to 60 km/h, treeline temperature -7 °C.

Friday

Mostly cloudy with 2 to 10 cm of snow, southwest alpine winds 60 to 90 km/h, treeline temperature -7 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Wind slabs are most reactive during their formation.
• Watch for fresh storm slabs building throughout the day.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.