Regions
Northwest Coastal.
We're dealing with a complex snowpack at the moment. Now is a good time to make conservative terrain choices.
Weather Forecast
Thursday: Intermittent flurries are expected to continue through the day with accumulations of up to 5cm forecast. Winds should be light from the south with a freezing level of 1000m in coastal regions dropping to 500m as you move inland. Friday: Partly cloudy with no precipitation expected. Freezing levels will fall to valley floor as strong outflow winds build through the day. Saturday: Weather will be dominated by cold outflow winds. Isolated flurries are possible with up to 5cm forecast for coastal areas.
Avalanche Summary
We received reports of several natural and skier triggered avalanches ranging from size 1-2 earlier in the week. These avalanche release on the uppermost layer of recently buried surface hoar.
Snowpack Summary
Between 5 and 30cm of new snow now covers a widespread layer of surface hoar. Warm temperatures are encouraging this new snow to settle into a slab while moderate southerly winds have loaded lee features. Below this the upper 100cm consists of at least 3 other distinct buried weak layers of surface hoar, faceted snow, and possible thin sun crusts on some solar aspects. These deeper weak interfaces continue to produce variable results in snow pack tests. Although they appear to be gaining strength they're worth keeping on your radar a little longer.
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.