Avalanche Forecast

High

Tonight the wind will be from the west and average 20km/hr at 2500m The overnight low will be -13. Tomorrow will have a thin layer of cloud with sunny moments thrown in for good measure. The alpine temps will hopefully reach -12. Ridge winds will be from the west at 25km/hr. There is an inversion predicted for tomorrow, so be prepared for warmer temps in the alpine than the valley bottom. We're not sure how intense this inversion is going to be, watch for signs of warm air above. Melting snow on rocks and moist snow are all indicators of an inversion.

Several loose dry avalanches (up to sz 1.5) were noted on N to S aspects today. A natural sz2 slab was noted on Mt Engadine. It was on a SW aspect, started in an alpine feature and entrained the facetted layers underneath. The suspected failure plain is a thin suncrust from the warm spell last week.

After settlement, we were left with 8cm of new snow at most of our weather stations this morning. Some areas saw as little as 3cm. This snow has not seen any significant wind at any elevation. The only exception is near high alpine ridges where the local winds are amplified due to the terrain. Because of this, there may be localized storm slabs in immediate lee areas in the alpine. E & SE aspects are the aspects susceptible to this problem. Other than that, the storm snow has gained enough strength to keep the loose dry avalanches off the radar, atleast as long as the winds remain calm. Little change at treeline and below treeline. Windslabs are still in crossloaded terrain in the alpine. They are just barely buried under the new snow. Below treeline travel is still reasonable despite the cold temps last night. There is some surface faceting going on and we can expect that to become more pronounced as the cold nights persist.