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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 17th, 2021–Apr 18th, 2021

Alpine
Below Threshold.
Treeline
Below Threshold.
Below Treeline
Below Threshold.
Alpine
Below Threshold.
Treeline
Below Threshold.
Below Treeline
Below Threshold.
Alpine
Below Threshold.
Treeline
Below Threshold.
Below Treeline
Below Threshold.

Regions

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

An upslope storm will occur Sunday but snowfall amounts are uncertain. Watch for sloughing where new snow overlies a crust.

Weather Forecast

A NE flow will develop Saturday night bringing more snow to the East side of the Rockies. Expect anywhere from 5-15cm of snow throughout the day. Temperatures will start to drop in the AM with alpine temperatures going down to -15C, and valley bottom temperatures around 0C. This cooling will continue Monday, and start to warm up again on Tuesday.

Snowpack Summary

Surface crusts present on solar aspects and all aspects up to 2200 m in the morning, quickly turning to wet snow as the day warms up. High elevation north aspects still holding dry snow. Several persistent layers exist in the mid to lower snowpack from earlier in the winter that may become active layers again over the next 48 hr as things heat up.

Avalanche Summary

On Friday and Saturday explosive control on the 93 S and in Yoho produced good results up to size 3 with small slabs at treeline gouging into deeper layers at lower elevations and running full path. Widespread natural loose wet avalanche activity up to size 2 was also observed at all elevations.

Confidence

Problems

Loose Dry

Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.

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.