South Columbia

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Good

The ridge of high pressure will break down somewhat allowing for overcast skies and very light snowfall on Thursday and Friday. By Saturday the ridge will rebuild in all its glory bringing mainly sunny skies for the weekend. Freezing levels will hover around 1000m for the forecast period, with ridge top winds remaining mainly light from the northwest.

With the warm temperatures on Monday, fairly widespread loose wet avalanche activity to size 2 was observed in sun-exposed terrain. Under the warm skies, a size 3 glide crack avalanche was also observed. In the North Columbia region, there was also some persistent slab avalanche activity on sun-exposed alpine slopes to size 3.5. With the forecast cooling trend, avalanche activity of this nature should taper-off.

At higher elevations, up to 10 cm of wind-pressed snow overlies the previous variable snow surface of surface hoar, crusts, or wind affected snow depending on aspect and elevation. The "Valentine's Day" crust is just below the surface and is now strong and thick in most places. Thin isolated wind slabs may still be reactive in high elevation lee terrain, and cornices remain large and weak. The late-Jan crust/surface hoar layer (up to 100 cm deep) and the mid-January surface hoar (80-120 cm deep) are generally dormant, and chances of triggering these weaknesses have decreased. However, triggering may be possible with a large input such as cornice fall, or an avalanche stepping down, especially on sun drenched slopes.