Avalanche danger is increasing as a series of storms move in from the southwest. These danger ratings are based on 10-20 mm of precipitation by Wednesday morning, and should be considered on the low side if you receive more snow in your area.
Confidence
Poor - Due to the number and quality of field observations
Weather Forecast
A series of warm Pacific storms are forecast to move into the region over the next few days. Expect 10-20 mm of precipitation by Wednesday morning combined with strong southeast winds and rising freezing levels. The next storm should hit the coast on Wednesday evening and continue through most of Thursday. Friday should be another lull between storms.
Avalanche Summary
No recent avalanches have been reported. I suspect that new storm slabs are bonding poorly in some areas and may be easy to trigger with light additional loads.
Snowpack Summary
Below you can see a description of the "foundation" of the snowpack, everything is about to change with a series of snow and wind events forecast over the next few days. Forecast storm snow is likely to build slabs, which may bond poorly to the current cornucopia of surfaces including hard slabs, crusts, facets and surface hoar. The snowpack is highly variable across different aspects and elevations. There is anywhere from 30-150 cm on the ground. Previous northerly outflow winds scoured upwind slopes back to a firm crust, and created wind slabs on lee aspects, which are gradually gaining strength. Shallow snowpack areas are rotten (facetted).
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.