Avalanche Forecast

Another dry, sunny and warm day is expected Wednesday. Freezing levels should again exceed 10,000 feet and along with light winds, causing areas of wet surface snow. Clearing overnight Tuesday should allow for the recent rain soaked upper snow layers to drain further, consolidate and allow for a thin surface crust to form. 

While wet snow avalanches should be unlikely, some shallow surface wet snow may make it possible to initiate a small loose-wet slide on some steep, mostly southerly facing slopes during the warmest part of the day. Watch for areas where surface snow is becoming wet for more than the top few inches.

From 3 to over 7 inches of rain fell over the Cascade west slopes from Sunday night to Monday evening, following about 5-15 inches of snowfall prior to the change to rain. The heavy snowfall at Mt Baker, where temperatures remained cooler Sunday night and where significant new snow was received, produced widespread natural avalanches along the Shuksan Arm as seen and reported by ski area patrol Monday, with consistent crown depths of about 2 feet. NWAC observer, Jeff Hambleton on Tuesday, scouting the aftermath of the event, found evidence of widespread wet snow avalanches, both loose and slab in the Baker area. 

Few other observations have been received since the major warming and rain event.

This recent rain should have eliminated any layers of concern in the upper  snowpack, leaving behind wet but draining upper snow layers. The rain reached the elevations of the Cascade crest, thus essentially resetting the overall still shallow snowpack, leaving behind wet but draining upper snow layers.