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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 26th, 2019–Jan 27th, 2019

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, human triggered possible.

Regions

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The Bottom Line: Expect the warmest temperatures of the winter, so far. Warming, sun, and uncertainty of how the snow will respond at upper elevations is keeping the danger heightened. If you are heading to higher slopes, use caution on slopes 35 degrees and steeper. Stay off of steep slopes if you see shooting cracks in the snow or experience collapses. 

Snow and Avalanche Discussion

With warming and sun, there is uncertainty about the snowpack at upper elevations. Most loose wet avalanches are a few days old. Watch for wet avalanches if you see soft, wet snow on sunny slopes and at low elevations.

A storm on the 23rd caused a widespread natural avalanche cycle throughout the Cascades. Many large paths ran in the area, entraining wet snow as the debris ran through the water saturated lower elevation snowpack. Most of these appear to have ran within the storm snow, but some may have taken out persistent weak layers. Natural slab avalanches were report as recently as Friday in the Wenatchee Mountains. It rained up to around 5,500ft, but this didn't affect deeply buried weak layers. Check out the Regional Synopsis tab for details on the storm and avalanche activity.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.