Temperatures will begin to drop overnight and Saturday and a few cms is suspected to fall. The problems associated with the weak base will continue to persist for some time yet to come this season.
If triggered the persistent slab is very likely to steep down to the deeper instability and involve the entire winter's snowpack.
With the warm temps arriving this layer may become more reactive
Nothing new observed today.
Overnight and through Saturday we should see a gradual cooling as the cooler air moves back in. The gradual cooling will be coupled with light snowfalls of up to 6cm. What we can expect is a new surface crust below 2000m in many areas. The freezing level climbed to 2200m on friday with +4 at valley bottoms. These warmer temps will help settle out the snowpack a bit but we would need a few continued days of this in order to really improve the conditions.
With regard to the current structure of the snowpack not much is changing. The weak basal facets are still there and can be triggered from thinner snowpack areas and due to the snowpack above having become more cohesive over the past weeks the potential for a large deep full depth avalanche is real. Also in the snowpack the Dec 17th SH layer is down 30-50cm and producing moderate to hard sheers. Regardless of a sheer in the midpack, there is a high likelihood that any avalache will step down and involve the entire snowpack.
Trace snow accumulation across the Region, though a few west-facing slopes could receive a couple centimeters under the heaviest flurries. Southwest winds will weaken in the morning from 30 to 40 km/h to 15 to 20 km/h around Kananaskis Country (KC). Alpine temperatures -2°C to -6°C across most of the Range, except 0°C to +2°C south of Highwood Pass
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
