Waterton Lakes

Last weeks Chinooks decimated the snowpack in much of our forecast area. The new snow is being accompanied by strong westerly winds, but should provide for some good skiing in sheltered areas near the divide.

A couple of weak fronts (warm followed by cold) will bring snowfall of up to 10cm Friday night into Saturday morning accompanied by cooling temperatures.  Unsettled conditions will persist through the weekend in the wake of these fronts, with cloudy skies, cool temps, variable light to moderate winds and scattered flurries through Monday.

Up to 12mm of precip fell Thursday, accompanied by freezing levels dropping from 2200m to valley bottom and strong westerly winds.  This over firm surfaces previously affected by Strong to Extreme Chinook winds and warm temperatures.  Two PWLs linger as a concern; a layer of crust or surface hoar down 40-70cm, and a crust facet layer down 70-120cm.

Several loose wet avalanches up to size 1.5 were observed on Thursday below 2200m.  An isolated size 2.0 natural slab avalanche (likely a fresh windslab) was observed Friday morning from a steep Easterly alpine slope.  Neighboring ski operations have reported isolated large deep persistent slab avalanches failing on the Dec. 9th crust recently.