Regions
Kootenay Boundary.
Avalanche danger can rise very quickly with warming and solar radiation. Be aware of changing conditions and overhead hazards. Terrain choices and timing can be critical.
Weather Forecast
Tonight and Monday: The ridge of high pressure bringing clear and warm conditions remains over the province. Clouds will start building as a low pressure system approaches during the day. Expect freezing levels to be near 2500 m and light North West winds. Tuesday: A trace of precipitation is forecasted with light North West winds, freezing levels going from 1200 m at night and rising to 1500 m during the day. Wednesday: Mainly cloudy, a possibility of light precipitation, freezing levels around 1700 m.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches reported.
Snowpack Summary
Melt-freeze cycles has created a hard crust at the surface in most places. During the day, this crust is broken down by warm temperatures and solar radiation on all aspects up to around 2200 m and above this elevation on solar aspects. Snow stability will decrease quite rapidly as the day progresses tomorrow, increasing the chance of cornice fall and wet loose avalanches. The late January/early February persistent weak layer is deeply buried, and has not produced avalanches in this region for some time now. However, tomorrow's intense warming and solar radiation could wake up the deep weak layer in isolated areas, like on higher alpine slopes that have not gone through such a heat shock. I suspect this would be more the case in the Northern part of the region.
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.
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.