Avalanche Forecast

After a mostly clear and relatively mild start to Saturday for Mt. Hood, a fast moving frontal system approaching from the NW will bring increasing clouds with light snow developing by late afternoon. New snow amounts through 4 pm will be insignificant, but westerly winds, especially above treeline, are expected spike up by mid-day. 

Lingering wind slab found above treeline should be the primary avalanche problem Saturday and found mainly on easterly lee aspects. 

Weather and Snowpack

Strong storms around the Solstice deposited generally 3 inches of water equivalent at NWAC stations on Mt Hood. Unfortunately, much of the heavy precipitation fell in liquid form with rain reaching above 7000 feet.

A strong front and strong west flow aloft was seen over the Cascades on Monday and Tuesday. NWAC stations at Mt Hood had strong west winds and the station at Mt Hood Meadows had about 2.5 feet of new snow for the 48 hours ending Wednesday morning.

A warm front draped over the north Washington Cascades Thursday left Mt. Hood in the warm sector with temperatures pushing above freezing at most stations under mostly sunny skies. When the front finally sagged south Thursday night, very light rain and snow moved in with a breakable rain crust reported up to 6600 feet Friday morning in the Meadows area.  

Recent Observations

Reports from the Mt Hood Meadows pro-patrol following the Solstice indicated a significantly different snowpack following rain, avalanches and cooling. A stout surface crust was found on all elevations up to at least 7200 feet. On exposed terrain, the crust was very supportable while in treed terrain the crust ranged from breakable to supportable.

The pro-patrol at Mt Hood Meadows Tuesday reported very sensitive storm slab releases, with slabs releasing upon approach to ridges or steeper features.

The pro-patrol on Wednesday reported below treeline widespread sensitive 6-12 inch storm slab releasing by ski tests. Near tree line wind slab became reactive to 1-1.5 feet with good propagation. Above treeline explosives were used with larger hard deep wind slab releases where ski tests where considered too dangerous. One very large hard slab released with explosives was rated R4 - D3.5 with an average crown depth of 4-6 feet with a maximum of 8 feet down to the Solstice crust. Again this avalanche released with explosives and this size result was not repeated during control work Wednesday but impressive nonetheless!  Wind slab near and above treeline was seen mainly on E-SE slopes Wednesday.