Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain

The Northwest Inland will see light precipitation through the weekend, with clearing skies late Sunday in advance of a ridge of high pressure that will dominate the weather pattern for most of next week. TODAY: Freezing level  to around 1200 m, trace of snow, light to moderate southeast winds. SUNDAY: Freezing level dropping to 700 m overnight, then rising to 1300 m during the day. Possible 5 cm of snow, light winds from the southwest. MONDAY: Freezing level dropping to 700 m overnight, then beginning to rise to 1500 m by midday. No precipitation in the forecast. TUESDAY: Freezing level starts at 700 m early Tuesday morning, then begins to rise  reaching 2700 m by early Tuesday evening. Light to moderate winds mostly from the west, no precipitation in the forecast.

Loose wet avalanches on solar aspects below treeline are in the news from yesterday. It is spring, after all !  Some sluffing in steep terrain and of course, cornice failures are on everybody's minds. Natural cornice failures have been recently reported triggering avalanches up to size 2.

At treeline and above small wind slabs overlie a variety of surfaces include crust on solar aspects above 1300 m, moist or refrozen snow on all aspects below 1300 m, and settled wind slabs in exposed high elevation terrain. There is a surface hoar layer formed in early March that may still be found down 50 to 70 cm. It is still being mentioned by operators in the northern half of the region. Professional operators are still tracking two deep weak layers from early-January and early-February that are now down about 1 meter or more. These layers are generally dormant but might wake up with increased warming or a heavy trigger (like a cornice fall). Basal facets exist in most areas and have been shown to be reactive in the north of the region.