Purcells

Strong winds, heavy snowfall, and rising temperatures have resulted in HIGH avalanche danger.

Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

Heavy snow and strong Southerly winds overnight, Friday morning, and Friday afternoon. Freezing levels climbing up to about 1600 metres in the North and east of the region, and closer to 2100 metres in the West and South of the region. Strong Southerly winds continuing on Saturday morning. Freezing levels dropping to 1400 metres on Saturday afternoon as the winds slow to moderate Southwest. Light Southerly winds combined with light precipitation and cooler temperatures on Sunday.

Natural and skier controlled avalanches up to size 1.5 were reported from Wednesday that released down about 40 cm on the late January crust. First reports from Thursday are that a very touchy storm slab 25 cm deep developed that was easy to trigger by ski-cutting. Expect a widespread natural avalanche cycle to result from the forecast strong winds and heavy snow.

The layer of new storm snow (20-30 cm)has fallen on a variety of old surfaces, including hard crusts, breakable crusts at higher elevations, and surface hoar in some areas. A melt freeze crust can be found up to about 2200m. At higher elevations, the surface is heavily wind affected. The depth of the mid-January surface hoar is highly variable across the region and it may have been destroyed by warmth at low elevations. Where it does exist, it can be found between 30 and 70 cm below the surface. The mid-December surface hoar layer lies below a strong mid-pack down about 60 to 120cm. Both of these persistent layers have been reactive recently. The mid-November weak layer of crusts and facets can still be found near the bottom of the snowpack. It has been unreactive lately, but should be on your radar in shallow snowpack areas where there is more chance of triggering.