Avalanche Forecast

Poor - Due to the number of field observations

The warm, moist storm system will continue to produce precipitation on Thursday night and early Friday morning. An Arctic high pressure system will move into the region sometime during the day on Friday. Temperatures are expected to drop substantially on Saturday and persist for a few days.Thurs. night/Fri. morning: Precipitation 10-15mm, freezing level around 2000m, strong SW alpine wind. Friday afternoon: Precipitation tapering off, freezing level falling to valley bottom, alpine winds easing. Saturday: A mix of sun and cloud, snow flurries possible, treeline temperature around -15C, light N alpine wind.Sunday: Mostly sunny, treeline temperature around -20C, light N alpine wind.

A report from the Invermere area suggests widespread natural activity up to size 2 on all aspects above 1800m.  Observations from other parts of the region are limited.  If you are out in the mountains and observe activity, please send your observations to forecaster@avalanche.ca.

This is an estimate of what the snowpack may look like based on a few old observations and previous weather. If you plan on heading into the mountains be sure to supplement this with your own observations and please pass along any data you collect (forecaster@avalanche.ca).Around 40-60 cm of recent storm snow has fallen in the past few days. This new snow may be sitting on a layer of surface hoar, facets, and/or a sun crust (similar to the South Columbia). Below this you will likely find a 15-25cm thick layer of sugary facets, which is sitting on a solid rain crust from early November. Recent strong and variable winds have probably created dense wind slabs in exposed terrain and resulted in variable snow distribution in the alpine. At lower elevations, expect travel to be difficult and potentially hazardous as many early season hazards are exposed or lightly buried (stumps, logs, rocks, open creeks, etc).