Confidence
Fair - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Monday
Weather Forecast
Monday: clear conditions in the morning with light snowfall developing by mid-day and intensifying slightly overnight / moderate southwest winds / freezing level at 1900m Tuesday: broken cloud / light to moderate westerly winds / freezing level at 1800m Wednesday: light snowfall / light southwest winds / freezing level at 1600m
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches were reported form the region, but that may be attributed to the lack of observations. In a neighboring region glide crack releases to size 3 were observed at lower elevations while new storm slabs to size 1 were observed above 2000m.
Snowpack Summary
Last week, very warm temperatures affected all but the highest north facing slopes. Since Thursday morning, light to locally moderate amounts of new snow have formed soft slabs on the resulting crust at treeline and above while rain has continued to penetrate and weaken the snowpack at lower elevations. Up to 80cm below the surface, you'll find another crust that was reactive last week in the alpine and at treeline. The mid-February buried surface hoar layer is down about 140-220 cm, although avalanches releasing on this layer represent an extremely low probability-high consequence scenario. Cornices in the region are very large. With spring temperatures, these are more likely to become weak and fail. They could provide a large enough trigger to release deep layers on slopes below.
Problems
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.
Wet Slabs
Wet Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). They often occur during prolonged warming events and/or rain-on-snow events. Wet Slabs can be very unpredictable and destructive.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.