Regions
Kootenay Boundary.
Warmth is the main driver of avalanche hazard at the moment. Minimize your exposure to large slopes if the snowpack is becoming moist or wet.
Confidence
Fair - Freezing levels are uncertain on Monday
Weather Forecast
Saturday: Freezing level hovering around 2000m all day. Moderate NW winds at treeline, Strong NW winds at ridgetop. Cloud cover reducing to about 40% in the late afternoon. No significant precipitation expected.Sunday: Freezing level hovering around 2000m. Light SW winds at treeline, moderate SW winds at ridgetop. Broken cloud cover, sunny breaks possible. No significant precipitation expected.Monday: Freezing level starting around 2000m, rising to 2500m by the afternoon. Calm at treeline, moderate W/SW winds at ridgetop Scattered cloud. No significant precipitation expected.
Avalanche Summary
Storm slabs ran to size 2 on all aspects Thursday as cold snow was subjected to rapidly warming temperatures. Loose wet avalanches ran on all aspects to size 2.5. The larger loose avalanches were running on north through west facing terrain between 1900m and 2100m.
Snowpack Summary
5 to 20 cm of new snow was left in the wake of Wednesday night's storm. Most (if not all) of this storm snow was affected by rain that fell to ridgetop Thursday afternoon as temperatures rose as high +4 at 2000m. This wet surface snow did not re-freeze Thursday night. The mid-March crust layer is now down 40-60cm, and possibly deeper on wind loaded features. Most recent reports suggest that the overlying snow is bonding well to the crust. However, a snowpack test on Tuesday from the northern part of the region produced an easy sudden "pops" result on a crust/facet interface down 70 cm. This was on a northwest aspect near 2200 m.
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.