The current storm will taper overnight and end by Friday morning, when temperatures cool significantly. However, unstable slabs will continue to exist, and careful snowpack evaluation and route finding will be critical over the next few days.
Summary
Weather Forecast
The current storm will continue overnight, tapering early on Friday morning. At this time, the upper level flow will rotate slightly into a NW orientation, and we should expect to see clearing and cooling trend starting on Friday. So, expect another 5-10 cm overnight Thursday, then down to -15 and clearing by Friday morning with strong west winds.
Snowpack Summary
The current storm has so far deposited 15 cm of snow in the last 24-hours, along with strong SW winds and warm temperatures - this combination is creating unstable slabs that overlie a weak layer almost 50 cm below the surface. In some areas, moist surface snow adds to the load and many whumphs were observed today confirming the unstable situation.
Avalanche Summary
Minimal avalanche activity observed today, which is surprising considering the conditions. Several wet loose avalanches were noted in the valley bottoms, and some wet debris was observed in several avalanche paths. Consider that the visibility was poor, so our confidence in these observations is low.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations