Cariboos

If dry snow exists in the alpine, watch for pockets of wind slab in leeward terrain features.

Avalanche danger may increase on steep sun-exposed slopes.

Moderate

• Confidence is due to a stable weather pattern with little change expected.

On Tuesday, the region saw widespread natural slab avalanche activity up to size 3. This included persistent slabs, wet loose, storm and wind slab avalanche problems at all elevations.

With a cooling and drying trend on Thursday, we expect avalanche activity to taper significantly until the weekend warm up.

A 1 cm thick melt-freeze surface crust will likely exist up to 2400 m on all aspects. With sunny skies, this crust may break down during the day, showing moist snow surfaces, especially on south-facing slopes. In the high alpine, up to 90 cm of recent snow has been transported by strong southwest winds. In areas protected from the wind, a surface hoar layer buried in early January may be found down 100+ cm.

The prominent mid-December crust is now buried around 1.5 m deep, and is present up to 2300 m. Triggering this layer is considered unlikely, except with large loads like a cornice failure or in thin snowpack areas.

Wednesday Night
Mostly cloudy. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Thursday
Sunny. 40 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C. Freezing level 1100 m.

Friday
Sunny. 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level valley bottom.

Saturday
Sunny. 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 2800 m. Strong alpine temperature inversion.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Wind slabs are isolated, but may remain reactive.
• Triggering deep layers is more likely if the snow surface didn't freeze overnight.
• Avalanche activity is unlikely when a thick melt-freeze crust is present on the snow surface.