Mt Hood

Areas of wet snow are expected, especially on steeper southerly facing slopes exposed to direct sunshine.

Drying, clearing and very warm air with freezing levels nearing 12,000 feet are expected Tuesday. This should allow for the recent rain soaked upper snow layers to drain and gradually consolidate. Clearing overnight Monday may have allowed for radiational cooling to form a thin melt-freeze crust.

From 2 to over 3 inches of rain have fallen over the Mt Hood area from Sunday night to Monday evening, following about 5-10 inches of snowfall prior to the rain. 

Few observations were received Monday, other than reports of creek beds opening and water falls spilling to the valley floors!

The rain should have released any recent snow received before the substantial warming arrived Sunday night. The rain has reached to the Cascade crest elevations to at least 7000 feet or higher, thus essentially resetting the snowpack. This recent rain should have eliminated any layers of concern in the upper snowpack, leaving behind wet or saturated upper snow layers.

We'll await more detailed impacts of the rain later in the week, as conditions will become more amenable to making observations.