Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 27th, 2014 4:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Deep Persistent Slabs.

Grant Statham, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

Beautiful days in the mountains! Blue sky with sun, and a cool north wind keeping the snow surface cold. Steep south aspects today warmed up slightly, but no significant wet snow or or rockfall was observed. Tuesday looks to be a repeat . . .

Summary

Weather Forecast

The stable weather will continue for one more day, as Tuesday looks to be another beautiful mountain day. Sunny with a high of -9 and a low down to -16 overnight, light winds and no new snow. Wednesday is showing a minor system passing through the area, with the potential for 5-10 cm across the forecast area.

Snowpack Summary

The Jan 25 surface hoar layer is buried under 5 cm of snow in many areas. While not a problem now, this protected layer of surface hoar will become a weak layer in the future. Strong solar radiation has formed suncrust on south & west facing slopes. The facets at the base of the snowpack remain weak, but theÂ overall snowpack is gaining strength.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches observed in the past several days.

Confidence

The weather pattern is stable on Tuesday

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

The weak facets at the base of the snowpack have not gone anywhere. But, time and settlement seem to have brought the snowpack into balance. Isolated, large avalanches may still occur, particularly in areas that have not avalanched previously.

Be aware of the potential for full depth avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Jan 28th, 2014 4:00PM