As the storm ends Sunday and cold clear weather arrives, lingering wind slabs at upper elevations will be the primary snowpack concern.
Consistent strong winds and snow accumulation over the past 3 days have developed wind slabs. These new winds slabs are sitting on a verity of surfaces like hard slab, SH and facets. Expect to find them in most leeward and drifted slopes.
With up to 40cm of new snow accumulation and warm temps, some areas with high snowfall amount may have storm slab development. We have limited observations of this problem and suspect it will be short lived as cold temps arrive Monday.
The westerly flow will end Sunday morning as an arctic high moves into the forecast region. Sunday will be a transition day with partly cloudy skies as the cold Arctic air moves into the forecast region. By Monday the high pressure system will bring clear skies, light winds and frigid temperatures.
20-35 cm of new snow has fallen over the past 3 days. Strong west winds creating fresh wind slabs at treeline and above. Areas to the west received the most snow. These wind slabs may release easily on the various firm surfaces underneath. The Jan 30th surface hoar/sun crust interface exists 30-50 cm below the surface and is currently unreactive.
The forecast team had limited back country observations Saturday and no new avalanches to report. Local ski hills reported new wind slab development on lee slopes producing small slabs size 1.
