Regions
Northwest Coastal.
The combination of strong winds and heavy snowfall with several buried weak layers is a recipe for avalanches. A widespread avalanche cycle is expected on all aspects and elevations.
Weather Forecast
Snow is expected to start falling overnight. More coastal regions will see up to 20cm by Saturday evening, with another 15-20cm overnight before the fire hose slides south down the coast. Terrace will see slightly less, with 15cm expected on Saturday and another 10cm by Sunday morning. Flurries are forecast for Sunday. Monday is expected to be mainly dry. An Arctic front just inland will keep thing cool meaning freezing levels should to stay below 500m. Strong to extreme south west winds are going to hit the coast on Saturday morning, becoming moderate westerly by Sunday, and light northerly by Monday.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanche have been reported as publishing on Friday afternoon.
Snowpack Summary
The new snow will fall on a variety of weak surfaces including facets and surface hoar. Deeper in the snow pack 25-40 cm of low density snow was sitting above the December 17th surface hoar as of Friday, with 35-55 cm above the December 14th surface hoar . The December 1st surface hoar was down a meter or so, however, the distribution and sensitivity of this layer is variable. In some areas, it may still be sensitive to triggering and capable of wide propagations, in other areas it is non-existent or has gained significant strength.
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.