Mt Hood

Expect a cloudy day Tuesday with a chance for light rain and a dusting of high elevation snow. A cooling trend will further stabilize the snowpack and avalanches will be unlikely.

Tuesday brings a change in the weather pattern with cooling temperatures, increasing winds, and light precipitation. By afternoon, there is a small chance you could find shallow wind slabs in lee terrain at the highest elevations. Below 5500ft, the snowpack is well adjusted to being wet and light rain won't be enough to increase the avalanche danger. Elsewhere, firm and frozen snow surfaces will limit the potential for additional cornice fall, glide, and wet avalanche activity. 

The snowpack experienced a significant and prolonged thaw MLK weekend, with a stretch of sunny skies and spring-like weather. Remote weather stations around Hood recorded above freezing temperatures for the past 4 consecutive days, and high temperatures even hit 55F on Saturday at 6500ft. Some wet avalanches ran during the heat of the day on the sunniest slopes, but were small. A few cornices sagged and fractured as well (thanks for all the observations), and many glide cracks opened up, but only one turned into an avalanche that we know of (observation). Surface hoar was reported as well, but will likely be destroyed by sun, warming, or rain before the snow starts to fly again.

Plenty of folks took advantage of the good weather window over the weekend and climbed high. Falling rime ice began mid-morning, and observers witnessed several large chunks fly down popular southside climbing routes. A few moats, glide cracks, and melting fumaroles were additional hazards to avoid on the upper mountain. Textured, icy surfaces were found in many places, and frozen rain rills made for a bumpy ride below 6000ft.