Presidential Range

You are unlikely to trigger an avalanche today. New rain and warm temperatures will continue to melt and settle the snowpack. Use general precautions when traveling in avalanche terrain to reduce your exposure to springtime mountain hazards.

Over the past several days, elevations have lacked consistent sub-freezing nighttime temperatures to form a diurnal snowpack. Instead, settling and melting have been continuously at work. Since last Tuesday, the Hermit Lake snowplot has lost over 8 inches of snow and the Mount Washington summit has recorded a loss of 4 inches. Today, rising temperatures and up to 0.21 inches of rain will continue this melt and settle process. 

Because of this, the saturated snowpack lacks structure for a specific avalanche problem. However, a LOW hazard rating does not mean no avalanche danger. More water added to the snowpack will continue to erode areas and create incohesive snow in steep terrain making wet sluffs likely. These sluff could cause long sliding falls through terrain where exposed rocks and trees would be consequential. Today’s conditions will also increase the likelihood of springtime mountain hazards. 

If traveling in steep terrain, use general precautions such as carrying avalanche safety equipment and slope-specific assessments to help reduce your exposure. 

OBSERVATIONS: Please consider submitting an observation of what you are seeing in your travels. Submitting an observation hones your skills, informs other users, and improves our forecasts.