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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Feb 26th, 2020–Feb 27th, 2020

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Regions

Glacier.

More snow load is being added to the February 22nd persistent weak layer and a soft slab is developing. Conservative travel practices are crucial during this time of increasing avalanche hazard.

Weather Forecast

Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and trace amounts of accumulation. The freezing level will climb to 1400m with an alpine high of -7 C. Ridge winds will be SW 20km/h with gusts to 45km/h.

A frontal system moves into the region on Thursday and is expected to bring 5-10cm of new snow. On Saturday a larger Pacific low arrives with up to 16cm.

Snowpack Summary

The February 22nd surface hoar layer is now buried 35-40cm. This layer is widespread up to 2300m. On solar aspects the surface hoar sits atop a crust. The surface snow is beginning to gain cohesion above this weak layer and in many places a soft slab had now formed. Incremental loading through February has created an otherwise benign mid-pack.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were observed in the highway corridor. A field team in the Illecillewaet drainage remotely triggered a small size 1.0 from 100m away on a steep S aspect that ran on a buried sun crust down 15cm.

Confidence

Problems

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.