Regions
Northwest Coastal.
Increasing outflow winds will transport new snow and maintain dangerous avalanche conditions.
Confidence
Moderate - Due to the number of field observations
Weather Forecast
SUNDAY: Sunny, moderate east winds increasing to strong overnight, alpine temperatures around -15.MONDAY: Cloudy with scattered flurries and accumulations of 5 cm, strong outflow (east) winds, alpine temperatures around -10.TUESDAY: Sunny, strong to extreme outflow (east) winds, alpine temperatures around -15.
Avalanche Summary
On Saturday, poor visibility limited avalanche reports to a few size 1 natural avalanches at low elevations, but larger storm slab avalanches likely occurred at higher elevations. Large persistent slab avalanches have been reported on a regular basis in the Ningunsaw area for the past few weeks.On Sunday, increasing winds will transport the recent storm snow and continue to build touchy storms slabs. Triggering larger persistent slab avalanches on buried surface hoar layers remains possible.
Snowpack Summary
20-50 cm of new storm snow sits above a variable interface composed of hard wind slabs, weak surface hoar, and faceted snow. Expect the new snow to bond poorly to this interface and form extra touchy storm slabs on wind-loaded features. Wind-loading will likely occur on a wide variety of aspects, as winds are shifting to the northeast. Below the new snow, a well settled slab sits above the Christmas surface hoar layer, which is now buried 50-100 cm deep and may still be reactive in sheltered areas. Deeper weak layers have only been reactive in areas with thin snowpacks. This includes a facet layer from mid-December that has been reactive in snowpack tests at lower elevations, and weak facets near the ground that have produced avalanches in the northern part of the region.
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.