Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 8th, 2016–Apr 9th, 2016

Alpine

Below Threshold.

Treeline

Below Threshold.

Below Treeline

Below Threshold.

Alpine

Below Threshold.

Treeline

Below Threshold.

Below Treeline

Below Threshold.

Alpine

Below Threshold.

Treeline

Below Threshold.

Below Treeline

Below Threshold.

Regions

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

Heating over the last two days has added a lot of heat to the snowpack. Expect crusts to break down quickly at lower elevations despite the cooler temperatures that are forecast. Spring Conditions !

Weather Forecast

Following the hot and sunny conditions Thursday and Friday, passage of a cold front late Friday promises to bring cooler temperatures for Saturday with freezing levels peaking at around 2200m through Sunday. Watch for sunny periods to bring heating on both days with a bit more clearing likely on Sunday.

Snowpack Summary

The morning snowpack is strong when frozen, but this can rapidly break down with warming. In many places the snowpack is sitting on a deep persistent layer of facets that has been avalanching with solar heating over the previous week. Telemetry stopped working at 2200 yesterday evening.

Avalanche Summary

Reasonably strong heating today likely generated a cycle of loose wet avalanches mainly on S and W aspects.

Confidence

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.