Avalanche Forecast

A series of storms will begin to impact the Snoqualmie Pass area Friday bring several rounds of precipitation, fluctuating snow levels, and strong winds. Unfortunately, the weather models diverge on the strength and timing of each wave of precipitation. This is making pinning down the avalanche forecast difficult. As a result, you’ll need to monitor conditions and recognize when your experiencing weather that’s outside the forecast. If your observations don’t line-up with what you expected, dial back your travel to lower angled and lower consequence slopes.

This first round of precipitation Friday doesn’t look like it will be enough to build new avalanche concerns and increase the avalanche danger for Snoqualmie Pass. That’s likely to change as additional storms impact the area over the weekend. If you travel to higher elevations Friday, be on the lookout for areas where the wind drifts any new snow into slightly deeper drifts. It’s these wind affected areas where you may find an isolated slab.

Warm temperatures and rain continue to cause the snowpack at mid and lower elevations to fall apart. We’re seeing opening creeks, snow shedding from rocks, holes near trees, and even bare ground. More water on Friday will only serve to fuel this pattern. Use caution as you travel near these springtime hazards, and expect the snow coverage to be different than you experienced in recent weeks.

We expect similar springtime hazards such as these glide cracks, exposed rocks, and openings seen on Mt Herman at 4300 ft.  04/03/19 Photo: Andrew Kiefer

April 3rd, 2019

Spring snowmelt

The snowpack in much of the Cascades has changed dramatically in the past two weeks. The weather has shifted solidly to spring-like patterns. The spring warm-up started in mid-March with a prolonged period of relatively clear skies and warm temperatures. Moving into April, we’re seeing periods of unsettled spring weather bringing rain to many low and mid-elevation slopes and snow to upper elevations.

Very bare southeast aspects of Rock Mtn/Nason Ridge. April 2nd. Photo: Josh Hirshberg

Since the peak height of snow in mid to late February, mountain weather stations in the 4,000-5,000ft range show an average of 27% decrease in height of snow. Looking at weather stations in nearly every zone, the percentage decrease ranged from 22-29%. This year's spring snowmelt is much earlier than normal. Traveling in the mountains the loss of snow coverage is most noticeable on southerly, sun-exposed slopes and below 4,000ft. On northerly aspects and slopes above 5,500ft, the snowpack has seen less dramatic changes and has even maintained some dry layers.

NWAC climatological snow depth data from April 1st. You can view it on our website here.

Spring avalanche considerations

As you head into the mountains there are a few questions to ask yourself common to spring avalanche conditions:

1. Is there any recent snow accumulation that could cause avalanches? If so, what kind of avalanches could you trigger? And where?

2. What are the high and low temperatures of the past 24 hours as well as the forecasted temperatures during the time you’ll be in the mountains? Could these create weak, wet snow surfaces?

3. How is the cloud cover contributing to the melting or freezing of surface snow? Did clear skies allow for a sufficient overnight freeze? Will the sun be strong enough to weaken surface layers?

Glide avalanches and holes opening up in rocky terrain near Mount Herman. Photo: Andrew Kiefer

Other considerations

In addition to daily avalanche hazard, the early snowmelt is creating some other travel considerations. Some roads and lower elevation slopes may not have enough continuous snow coverage for travel on snow machines. Holes melted around rocks, trees, and creeks could create a fall hazard. When nighttime temperatures and cloud cover allow for surface freezes, bring appropriate equipment to mitigate slip and fall hazard on steep slopes.

We are approaching the end of our daily avalanche forecasting season. The mountain weather forecast will continue into the spring, and the weather station data is available year round. Keep checking the forecast for conditions updates on the end of season information.