Avalanche Forecast

Poor - Due to limited field observations for the entire period

A broad upper trough remains offshore for the short term, while an embedded frontal system brings heavy amounts of precipitation, rising freezing levels and strong SW winds Tuesday. On Wednesday the flow will switch from SW to a more zonal westerly flow, and precipitation amounts will ease up.Tuesday: Freezing levels 1000 m falling to 700 m overnight, snow amounts 20-35 cm, ridgetop strong-extreme SW winds, alpine temperatures near -8.0.Wednesday/Thursday: Unstable onshore flow with fast moving systems allowing light-moderate amounts of precipitation. Strong Westerly ridgetop winds expected, and freezing levels 500-800 m.

No new avalanche observations have been reported. With strong winds and heavy precipitation forecast for Tuesday, expect avalanche danger to be on the rise with natural avalanche activity likely.

Over the past 4 days up to 80 cm of recent storm snow has fallen in the Coquihalla area, and nearly 50 cm on the Duffy. Storm slabs and new wind slabs load a variety of old surfaces within the upper snowpack. These old surfaces consist of large surface hoar, a thin sun crust, and surface facets. Below, the mid-pack is reported to be well settled and bridging over the early November facet/crust persistent weakness. This persistent weakness sits near the bottom of the snowpack with large, low density faceted crystals below it. Snowpack tests from earlier this week showed sudden collapse results on the early November facet/crust, Possible trigger points could be from shallow, thin and rocky locations.