This morning, several inches of new snow lies in higher terrain that has adhered well to old surfaces. As skies clear and temperatures rise today, the surface of the snowpack will soften and wet slides will become possible. These slides will likely involve just new snow at the higher elevations and deeper snow at the lower elevations where warm temperatures have consistently penetrated the snowpack. Weak layers of faceted snow persist deep in the snowpack and a slight chance also remains for large loads to trigger dangerous, hard slab avalanches. Glide avalanches and roof slides continue to pose a threat, particularly this afternoon and early evening.
Deep and destructive persistent slab avalanches could be triggered to the ground with depths to six feet at the higher elevations. Although the chance of such an event being human triggered is becoming less likely, they could still occur in isolated areas if a particularly weak spot on a slope is impacted by the weight of a snow machine and rider or by a large cornice drop.
The chance for wet slide activity will increase today in steep terrain, particularly at lower elevations.
( Discussion is generated from the previous day's afternoon forecast. )The current weak system will continue to bring periods of light snow, particularly at the higher elevations this evening and into the early morning hours of Monday. Additional accumulations of an inch or two are possible. By sunrise, precipitation should have come to end and skies are to quickly clear. Temperatures are to reach into the low thirties at the higher elevations and into the upper forties at the low elevations. Winds are to be westerly with five to fifteen mile per hour averages.In the Teton area, the general avalanche hazard will be Low in the morning, increasing to Moderate in the afternoon as wet slides become possible. In the Southwest Trails and Togwotee Pass areas, the danger will be Moderate as an slight but possible chance remains large triggers to cause deep slab avalanches all day and wet slides will also become possible in the afternoon. Roof slides remain a threat.
