Regions
Northwest Inland.
New snow and wind are developing new storm slabs. Expect avalanche danger to increase in areas that have enough snow to slide.
Confidence
Poor - Due to the number and quality of field observations
Weather Forecast
A series of Pacific storms are forecast to continue to produce 5-10 cm overnight at treeline, and another 5-10 during the day on Thursday. Cooler and drier air is expected to move down from the north on Friday, some convective flurries may result in a few cms of new snow at all elevations. The models are not in good agreement for Saturday, at this time only a few cms are forecast to make it inland in the north.
Avalanche Summary
No recent avalanches have been reported. Thin new storm slabs are expected to develop with forecast snow and wind.
Snowpack Summary
In general, the early season snowpack is shallow and weak. Developing storm slabs are sitting on a mix of crusts and weak facetted crystals or surface hoar in some parts of the region. The southwest of the region sounds like it has the most snow, and probably the most wind with the new snow. We have some reports of a weak facetted base layer in the north of the region where recent temperatures were quite cold during the arctic outbreak. If you get out into the mountains, please submit your observations using the Mountain Information Network.
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.