Northwest Coastal

The combination of strong winds and heavy snowfall with several buried weak layers is a recipe for avalanches. A widespread avalanche cycle is expected on all aspects and elevations.

Snow is expected to start falling overnight. More coastal regions will see up to 20cm by Saturday evening, with another 15-20cm overnight before the fire hose slides south down the coast. Terrace will see slightly less, with 15cm expected on Saturday and another 10cm by Sunday morning. Flurries are forecast for Sunday. Monday is expected to be mainly dry. An Arctic front just inland will keep thing cool meaning freezing levels should to stay below 500m. Strong to extreme south west winds are going to hit the coast on Saturday morning, becoming moderate westerly by Sunday, and light northerly by Monday.

No new avalanche have been reported as publishing on Friday afternoon.

The new snow will fall on a variety of weak surfaces including facets and surface hoar. Deeper in the snow pack 25-40 cm of low density snow was sitting above the December 17th surface hoar as of Friday, with 35-55 cm above the December 14th surface hoar . The December 1st surface hoar was down a meter or so, however, the distribution and sensitivity of this layer is variable. In some areas, it may still be sensitive to triggering and capable of wide propagations, in other areas it is non-existent or has gained significant strength.