Dashboard Regions Weather Stations Radar Alerts Glossary
Contact About
Log In

Register for an account and never miss a forecast again!

Register

Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 21st, 2019–Mar 22nd, 2019

Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

South Coast Inland.

Natural avalanche activity is possible with continued warm temperatures on Friday. Cornices are soft and weak. Avoid travel under, on or anywhere near cornices.

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

The weather pattern begins to change Thursday with increased cloud cover and falling freezing levels overnight. FRIDAY: Cloud with some sun. Freezing levels 2300 m with an alpine high of + 4 degrees. Ridgetop winds moderate from the southwest.SATURDAY: Cloudy with very light rain at lower elevations and light snow in the alpine. Freezing levels falling to 1400 m and alpine temperatures near -1. Ridgetop winds light to moderate from the southwest. SUNDAY: A mix of sun and cloud with freezing levels 1700 m and alpine temperatures near -1. Ridgetop winds light from the southwest.

Avalanche Summary

On Wednesday, natural loose wet avalanche activity continued up to size 3 on SE-SW aspects in the northern parts of the region. In the South, a few natural loose wet avalanches were reported up to size 2 from steep solar aspects. We suspect that natural avalanche activity will slowly decrease as temperatures drop over the weekend.

Snowpack Summary

Snow surfaces are highly variable. On higher North aspects (above 1700 m) you may find some dry, faceted snow. Some of this has been redistributed by southwesterly and northerly winds, potentially creating some unusual wind slabs. On solar aspects (East, South, West) the upper 10-20 cm is moist but re-freezes overnight into a solid crust which breaks down by noon. Most solar slopes at lower elevations are becoming isothermal. The bigger questions are deeper in the snowpack. Down 40-60 cm below the melt-freeze crust on solar aspects and the wintery snow on the polar aspects sits the February facet interface. The warm temperatures will continue to penetrate deeper and destabilize the snowpack. Its hard to say how many hot days and warm nights it will it take to wake up the more deeply buried weak layers, if they even wake up at all?

Problems

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.

Wet Slabs

Wet Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). They often occur during prolonged warming events and/or rain-on-snow events. Wet Slabs can be very unpredictable and destructive.