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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 15th, 2025–Dec 16th, 2025

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

South Okanagan, Shuswap, North Okanagan.

Buried weak layers are an unusual feature of the snowpack in this region.

Choose conservative terrain and avoid steep or large open slopes.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

On Sunday, explosive control near Kamloops produced several size 2 persistent slab avalanches on the November crust.

Last week two additional persistent avalanches were reported, one explosive triggered and one with an unknown trigger. While uncertainty exists over the distribution of this layer, it is most likely triggered by heavy loads.

Snowpack Summary

High elevations may hold dry, wind affected storm snow sitting over a thin rain crust. Lower elevations affected by Monday's rain likely hold a surface crust, especially throughout the south of the region.

A mid November melt–freeze crust with surface hoar and/or faceted grains lies 40–80 cm below the snow surface. Another crust and facet combination from late October can be found at the base of the snowpack.

Snow depths at treeline vary from about 50 to 100 cm and decrease rapidly at lower elevations.

Weather Summary

Monday Night
Partly cloudy. 2 to 5 cm of snow. 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 1 cm of snow. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1300 m.

Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 10 to 20 cm of snow. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Thursday
Mostly cloudy. 4 to 10 cm of snow. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C. Freezing level 600 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Be cautious of buried obstacles, especially below treeline.
  • Avoid thin areas like rocky outcrops where you're most likely to trigger avalanches on deep weak layers.
  • In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and slopes above cliffs.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.