Central Sierra Nevada

Avalanches will remain unlikely today in most places. Talk with your group and make travel plans targeting terrain and conditions that match your group's goals and skills.  Be willing to change those plans if you find any signs of unstable snow or unexpected conditions.

Normal caution

Expect variable snow conditions in the mountains today. Open discussions about goals and honest assessments of skills can help create travel plans focused on terrain and conditions that are appropriate and fun for your group. Monitor the conditions as you travel. If you see any signs of unstable snow, such as snow surface cracking or larger areas of wet snow, or encounter any other unexpected conditions, adjust your plans accordingly.

Observations and data from across the forecast area indicate the snowpack continues to consolidate and strengthen. While isolated blowing snow and small wet snow instabilities, such as roller balls, pinwheels, and small sluffs, have been reported over the last few days, we have not received any reports of more problematic avalanche activity. Plenty of variable snow conditions exist across the region. Wind-exposed areas have every kind of wind-affected surface imaginable: sastrugi, wind-scoured surfaces, rippled snow, dense wind-buff, exposed rain crusts, etc. The winds may have left a few small, shallow, and dense slabs of wind-blown snow on some isolated terrain features as well.  In sunny areas, sun crusts and transitional melt-freeze snow have formed. As the day warms up, some of these crusts and melt-freeze snow will become wet surface snow. Softer snow still lingers on shady, wind-protected slopes and in some more exposed areas, where the once-firm surface snow has become less cohesive during the cold, clear nights.

Deep open holes, open creeks, and ponded water persist around the forecast area espcailly below 8,000' in low-lying areas, but some lurk at higher elevations as well.