Avalanche Forecast

Low - Due to the number of field observations

Wednesday: Cloudy with isolated flurries. Light westerly winds. Alpine temperature near -9.Thursday: Scattered flurries (5-10cm possible). Light to moderate south-westerly winds. Alpine temperature near -8. Friday: Snow (10-20 cm). Moderate southerly winds. Alpine temperature -8. More information can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

On Tuesday we received preliminary reports of an avalanche involvement in the north Columbia region near Clemina creek. The avalanche ran on a north facing aspect near 1900m. A natural storm slab avalanche cycle occurred on Monday with heavy snow and temperatures up to +2 Celsius in some tree line locations. See this MIN report for a good example of the avalanche activity. Conditions remain primed for human triggered avalanches, with the potential for some surprisingly large avalanches given how many persistent weak layers exist in the snowpack.

25-40 cm of storm snow fell from Sunday through to Tuesday and temperatures spiked to -2 at tree line in the south of the region (and +2 near Barkerville) on Monday afternoon. The new snow sits on a complex snowpack and there are three active weak layers we are monitoring:1) Down about 40-80 cm is a crust and/or surface hoar layer buried mid-January. The surface hoar is up to 10 mm in size, found at all elevation bands and very reactive on north east aspects between 1900-2600m.2) Deeper in the snowpack, the early-January persistent weak layer is found 50 to 100 cm below the surface. 3) Another weak layer buried mid-December consisting of a facet/surface hoar/crust combination is buried 100 to 150 cm deep. It has been most problematic at and below tree line.See here for a good summary of snowpack test results.