Confidence
Fair - Freezing levels are uncertain for the entire period
Weather Forecast
Overnight and Monday: The Low pressure system will continue to spread light precipitation to the Interior Ranges. An upper ridge of High pressure should build into the interior by late morning, bringing gradually drier and clearing conditions. There is a chance of some moderate precipitation combined with cooler air wrapping around from the East.Tuesday: The upper ridge is expected to cause dry conditions with broken skies or scattered cloud.Wednesday: A cold front is forecast to move across the Southern Interior bringing cooler temperatures and moderate precipitation.
Avalanche Summary
A natural size 2.5 wet slab out of the alpine occurred sometime in the last 24 hours on a south facing shoulder of Mt Hosmer.? A size 2.5 glide release, 50 meters wide and to ground was reported in the nearby Lizard Range on a steep east facing slope on Wednesday.Earlier in the week, numerous wet slab avalanches and glide crack releases to size 3 were observed? from South to West aspects.
Snowpack Summary
The classic melt freeze cycle has come to an end with cloud and warm temps preventing a good refreeze in most of the forecast region. Along with the solar aspects, previously dry north facing zones in the alpine are also now moist.? A buried rain crust can be found down 25-50 cm and exists up to around 2100 m.?? Larger triggers such as a loose wet slide, or cornice fall may cause this layer to fail.Snow may be isothermal on south facing aspects in the alpine/treeline and on all aspects below treeline.?
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.