Regions
Northwest Coastal.
Careful consideration to temperatures, accumulation, and exposure to avalanche terrain is necessary for safe travel now !
Confidence
Fair - Intensity of incoming weather systems is uncertain
Weather Forecast
Precipitation and strong winds will continue through Friday and are forecast to end on early Saturday morning. Skies should clear on Saturday and begin to dry out the forecast region. Freezing levels will stay around the 1500M mark , but drop to around 500m on Saturday.For more information check out the Mountain Weather Forecast at: https://avalanche.ca/weather
Avalanche Summary
There was no avalanche activity reported in the region yesterday, but this may be a case of poor weather and limited observations. Size 1 skier triggered wind slabs have been previously reported in high elevation lee terrain.
Snowpack Summary
This storm system accompanied by strong southwest winds will build dense slabs on exposed lee features, adding additional load to the previous storm slab. There are a variety of old buried interfaces that include hard wind slabs, hard crusts, surface hoar, and/or surface facets. The lack of large recent avalanches suggest a reasonable bonds at these interfaces, but we should remain cautious of steeper, high-consequence slopes, as a release on any of these buried layers could be large and destructive . At the base of the snowpack, weak facets may be found, particularly on shallow alpine slopes in the north of the region. Cornices are becoming large and potentially unstable.
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.