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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Feb 5th, 2015–Feb 6th, 2015

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

Regions

Olympics.

Dangerous avalanche conditions will be limited to above treeline in the Olympics on Friday.

Detailed Forecast

 

Moist and mild southwesterly flow will carry wet fronts across the area Thursday night and Friday. Snow levels will remain high, around 7000 feet before beginning to cool later Friday afternoon. 

Little if any avalanche danger is expected Friday near or below treeline in the Olympics due to little if any recent snow or bare ground.

In areas above treeline where there is enough snow for avalanches, loose wet and isolated wet slabs are the main avalanche problems. 

 

Snowpack Discussion

The small amount of new snow received this week at Hurricane Ridge has been washed away from Thursday's rain.  

The latest observations from Hurricane are from January 25th by pro-observer Katy Reid. She made a trip out to Mt. Angeles to one of the few above treeline areas accessible from Hurricane Ridge. She found snowdepths averaging 40-80 cm on N slopes with a few drifts above 1 meter. Snow cover was patchy only a few hundred feet below the ridge even on N facing slopes. This snow was well bonded consisting of melt forms and crusts and did not pose an avalanche problem.

There is currently not enough snow near and below treeline at Hurricane to cause avalanche danger. 

 

Problems

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.

Wet Slabs

Wet Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). They often occur during prolonged warming events and/or rain-on-snow events. Wet Slabs can be very unpredictable and destructive.