East Slopes South

A potent atmospheric river will create dynamic avalanche conditions above 5500 ft. Expect wet avalanches of all types to shed as rain continues to fall. Keep your terrain selection simple and avoid travel on or below steep, snow-covered slopes until this storm has run its course. 

This is a big, wet storm even for the mountains of the East South. Darland Mountain is forecast to pick up over 1 inch of rain on Monday evening before temperatures start to cool early Tuesday. This additional rainfall will maintain the threat of wet avalanches through the morning hours on slopes with sufficient coverage for over-snow recreation. As temperatures cool, precipitation should taper, but it's still possible for the highest elevations to squeeze out a couple of inches of dry snow. If you brave the weather and rough lower elevation travel, and find over a few inches of dry snow, it's time to start thinking about dry snow avalanche problems, mainly in more wind-exposed alpine terrain. Unfortunately, the cooling will be short-lived as another warm, atmospheric river takes landfall Tuesday night. 

On December 7th, I set out for a driving tour of the East South zone. In general, I found very little to no snow below 5000 ft. Between 5 and 6000 ft, the snowpack is lean and will likely wash away with all the rainfall. Above 6000 ft, a much more consistent and connected snowpack exists. In typical Cascade fashion, I found a thicker, more desirable snowpack closer to the Cascade Crest than areas further east. We'll have to see what's left of this already struggling snowpack once these warm storms are wrapped up. 

With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.

If you venture into the East South zone, we could use the observations. Let us know what you see by submitting an observation here.