Northwest Inland

There's a light at the end of the tunnel! By Friday there should be enough new snow to form an avalanche problem. Tricky travel on hard crust in challenging visibility until then.

High

• The snowpack structure is well understood.

No new or even recent avalanches have been reported in the region and forecast weather doesn't promise much change for the near term.

A skiff of new snow has done little to alter a snow surface that is heavily wind-affected in exposed alpine terrain. Below approximately 1600 m, the surface crust is up to 20 cm thick and presents slip-and-fall hazards. Large surface hoar can be found on the crust at treeline and below treeline.

A layer of facets is buried around 50 to 100 cm deep and is slowly gaining strength.

The mid and lower snowpack have no layers of concern. Snowpack depths are around 150-200 cm at treeline.

Tuesday Night
Mostly cloudy with scattered flurries bringing less than 5 cm of new snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.

Wednesday
Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries, increasing a bit overnight. 20 to 40 km/h south ridgetop wind, increasing. Treeline temperature -1 °C with freezing level rising to 1200 m.

Thursday
Mostly cloudy with scattered flurries bringing about 5 cm of new snow, including overnight. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C and freezing level to 1000 m.

Friday
Diminishing cloud after overnight and morning snowfall brings 15 to 25 total cm of new snow. Light rain below about 1300 m in the afternoon. 60 to 70 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature reaching 0 to 1 °C with freezing level climbing to 1700 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avalanche activity is unlikely when a thick melt-freeze crust is present on the snow surface.