Avalanche Forecast

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The south of the region should get another hit of warm and wet on Tuesday night, that should end early Wednesday. There is an arctic ridge to the north that is forecast to slide further south and affect the whole region by Thursday. The area between Valemount and Blue River may see enhanced snowfall Tuesday night if the moist Pacific air collides with cold arctic air. Freezing levels should be down to valley bottoms by Thursday. The next big system is expected to hit the coast some time Thursday. Stay tuned to see how much moisture will be expected in the interior on Friday.

Some larger avalanches up to size 3.0 have been reported from steep large features on North faces in the alpine that can be seen from the highway corridors. Some smaller avalanches, and a couple of size 2.0 avalanche have been reported from North through East aspects where the wind deposited snow in the lee of terrain features.

Surface snow has been wind affected in the alpine and open areas at treeline.  Some people are reporting a thin crust on solar exposed aspects that developed late last week, and is now buried by the new storm. The freezing level went up to about 1500 metres during the recent storm. Snow levels taper off to below threshold by about 1200 metres. There is about 60-80 cms of recent storm snow above an early November crust, or series of laminated crusts. Tests have been showing easy to moderate SP (sudden planar) pops on weak facetted crystals at this crust interface, or within the crust sandwich.