Central Cascades

The avalanche hazard will be the same as it has been all week.  We have seen little to no avalanche activity even with temperatures reaching above freezing.  Avalanches are unlikely on Friday.  Continue to watch for unstable snow on isolated terrain features (in this case steep sunny slopes).

It sure feels like the movie Ground Hog's Day!  All week we have seen spring-like weather, and a spring-like snow pack.  The exception being that the relatively weak January sun hasn't been able to do much to the surface crust.  Slopes seem to be softening just enough to provide nice skiing when they are in the sun.  Alpine slopes that don't face south have been staying pretty firm.  Our observer Alli Hartz dug a snow profile on Tumalo yesterday and she didn't find any snow weaker than 1-finger...yup, definitely no peristent weak layers of concern.