Storm Slabs
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Likely
- Size
- 1–3
A powerful storm moved in yesterday and will continue to impact the region today and should quickly exit tomorrow morning. Very strong easterly winds have been ravaging the hills and as you can see in the video the wind was getting down into the trees as well. We are about midway in the storm now. Snowfall totals are below, but Turnagain Pass seems to be the winner so far in this event. Snow had been falling to sea level but the storm is warming for the second half and the rain/snow line should creep up to 1,500' and even higher in places by this afternoon. Another foot of snow is forecast for the Seward area by late tonight above the rain line.
Estimated storm totals from Saturday morning to 4am Sunday morning (station data has not updated since 4am).
- Girdwood- 4-8"
- Turnagain- 10-14"
- Summit- 1" snow
- Lost Lake- 8" snow
With so much going on in the snowpack there really are a wide variety of avalanche problems. It is safe to assume there have been many large natural avalanches that occured overnight that will continue today.
Wind slabs and Cornices: Sticky new snow and strong wind are the best ingredients for wind slabs and cornices. These types of avalanches are likely to be occuring in the mid and upper elevations. Cornices triggering slabs below are also a pretty sure bet.
Wet Avalanches: As the rain line creeps up we can expect to see wet avalanches as rain falls on new snow. These types of avalanches would be very easy for a person to trigger as well. They could be in the form of a wet loose avalanche that fans out, or a wet slab. The snowpack is primed with wet and soft snow grains under the 3-4' or so of snow from the past 9 days. This means it may not take too much rain to get some large wet avalanches in the mid elevations.
All that said, it's a good day to avoid being in avalanche terrain.
