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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 31st, 2024–Feb 1st, 2024

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

Regions

South Coast, Powell River, North Shore, Tetrahedron.

Another soggy day of wet snow hazards. A mix of rain and wet snow (but mostly rain) should keep wet loose avalanche conditions on life support on Thursday.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Observations have been very limited, however we are confident that a natural avalanche cycle has occurred and potentially continues with more rain and warm temperatures.

Snowpack Summary

The snowpack has been heavily saturated by recent rainfall. The entire snowpack is likely isothermal in most areas.

At lower elevations, the snowpack continues to melt away at an alarming rate. Below treeline coverage in many areas has returned to below threshold depth for avalanches.

Weather Summary

Wednesday night

Cloudy with another 15 mm of rain accumulating. Strong southeast winds.

Thursday

Cloudy with 5 to 15 mm of rain or wet snow in high alpine. Southeast alpine winds 20 to 40 km/h. Treeline temperature +2 and falling over the day with freezing levels around 1600-1800 m.

Friday

Cloudy with trace precipitation, south alpine winds 20 to 30 km/h. Treeline temperature 0°C with freezing levels around 1400 m.

Saturday

Cloudy, then clearing over the day. Alpine wind northeast 10-20 km/h. Treeline temperature around 0 with freezing levels around 1400 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid terrain traps such as gullies and cliffs where the consequence of any avalanche could be serious.
  • The more the snow feels like a slurpy, the more likely loose wet avalanches will become.
  • Loose avalanches may start small but they can grow and push you into dangerous terrain.

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.