The snowpack is now saturated with rain at treeline and below. As the temperatures fall, large avalanches will still be likely due to the rapid heating of the snowpack from today's rain. If traveling below treeline, avoid avalanche runout zones.
Weather Forecast
The forecasts for our region are changing almost every hour. The most current one shows another 36mm of precip over the next few days. This will be rain at lower elevations and snow at the upper elevations. Tonight the freezing level will be 2300m, and by Saturday morning at 5am the freezing level will be 1500m. The chance of an overnight re-freeze is very, very small given the amount of rain we've had. The alpine winds will be moderate out of the south for the next 24 hours.
Avalanche Summary
no avalanches were seen today but visibility was obscured for the entire day.
Snowpack Summary
Our weather plots have not shown any significant new snow, however this is likely due to the rain and wet snow. During the day today temps at ridge top hovered around -1. Right now the snowpack will be saturated with rain at low elevations, and moist at treeline and alpine elevations. Any incoming snow will be moist and heavy.
Problems
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.
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.