South Rockies

Winter is going out with a bang after producing 10 to 20 cm of storm snow Saturday night. Rising temperatures and the strong April sun could produce a turbo charged loose wet avalanche cycle on Tuesday.

Low - Due to the number of field observations

A rather slack and warm pattern is setting up with the big story being the steadily rising freezing level. It doesn't look like we'll get any significant precipitation this week. MONDAY NIGHT: Freezing level around 500 m, light variable wind, no new snow expected. TUESDAY: Broken cloud cover clearing to just a few clouds in the late afternoon, freezing level rising to around 2100 m, light variable wind, no significant snowfall expected. WEDNESDAY: Broken cloud cover, freezing level rising to around 2200 m, moderate to strong west wind, no significant snowfall expected. THURSDAY: Scattered cloud cover, freezing level rising to around 2800 m, moderate to strong west/southwest wind, no significant precipitation expected.

No new avalanche activity reported from this region, the following is from the Lizard Range:On Sunday storm slabs were quite sensitive to human triggering to size 2 on north through east facing slopes in the alpine and down into treeline. A little further down into treeline the snowpack was well bonded to the old crust, check out this MIN report for more details.A natural avalanche cycle occurred Saturday night, the highlights were storm slabs up to size 2 on northeast facing alpine terrain around 1700 m. A natural cornice failure was observed from a north facing ridgeline which subsequently triggered a size 2.5 storm slab involving the new snow. Control work produced storm slabs to size 2. We received a great MIN report of a small storm slab from Saturday morning, and this was well before the storm really kicked into gear. 

The Saturday Night storm delivered 10 to 20 cm of snow which makes for 20 to 40 cm of new snow in the last week. This snow sits above a widespread supportive crust. Steep, north facing, alpine terrain may still hold a cold, dry, snowpack where fresh storm slabs are thought to be widespread. Steep north facing terrain is also harboring a deeply buried layer of facets. Although unlikely, human triggering of persistent slabs on this layer may still be possible, especially in rocky alpine terrain with a shallow or highly variable depth snowpack. It looks like it is going to warm up this week and all the new snow will likely produce a widespread and powerful loose wet cycle. During the heat of the day, especially under direct sun, the snow surface will become moist or wet almost everywhere (except for high elevation north) and loose wet avalanches could run far.Below treeline the snowpack has melted or is isothermal.