Wind Slabs
- Alpin
- Limite forestière
- Sous la limite forestière
- Probabilité
- Very Likely
- Taille
- 1–3
New snow and wind last night have already formed fragile wind slabs on the leeward side of ridges, in gullies, and on open slopes exposed to the wind. In the northern part of the forecast area where more snow fell last night, these wind slabs may already be large. In the southern part of the forecast area where less snow fell, they may start out smaller this morning. Blizzard conditions today with gale force SW winds and feet of new snow across the entire region will cause these slabs of wind drifted snow to become larger, more widespread, and more unstable. Natural avalanches are likely today and human-triggered wind slab avalanches will become very likely. Large and destructive avalanches could occur today. The largest wind slabs will exist in near and above treeline terrain on NW-N-NE-E-SE aspects. Some large wind slab avalanches could run down into below treeline terrain.
Dangerous conditions will exist in the backcountry today. Traveling in, below, or near avalanche terrain is not recommended. The blizzard conditions will also result in poor visibility and make navigation more difficult.
