Much anticipated new snow will be arriving in our area and accompanied by strong northeast winds.
Wind-loaded features and terrain traps should be avoided.
New snow arriving Friday will be redistributed by southwest then northeast winds. New wind slabs will be covering older wind slabs that can also be on a range of aspects. Suspect storm slab properties where the wind has had little affect on the new snow.
No new avalanches have been reported in our region. This is expected to change with incoming weather.
Please continue to share any observations or photos on the Mountain Information Network.
New snow falling Friday night and Saturday morning will be covering a snowpack surface that experiences above-freezing temperatures into the alpine on Thursday. Suspect that any snow that falls will be falling on a crust. Moderate to strong winds will be will be associated with this storm so expect to find wind slabs and pockets of storm snow deeper than expected. Just below the surface, lies another melt-freeze crust that can be found up to 2100 m.
The mid-pack continues to settle and is well consolidated. Facets exist near the base of the snowpack. Total snowpack depth ranges between 90 to 125 cm.
Friday Night
Cloudy, up to 17 cm accumulation, wind northeast 20 km/h gusting to 50, treeline temperatures -10 C and falling throughout the night.
Saturday
Clearing, no accumulation, wind northeast 20 to 30 km/h, treeline temperatures around -23 C.
Sunday
Mostly sunny, possible trace accumulation, wind northeast 15 to 25 km/h, treeline temperatures around -25 C.
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud, no accumulation, wind west southwest 10 to 20 km/h, treeline temperature climbing to around -15 to -20 C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
