Bulletin d’avalanche

Kootenay Boundary

Dec 9 – 10, 2014Avalanche Canada
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Archivé · expiré 12 years ago

Danger d’avalanche

Thu
Fri
Alpin
3 · Marqué
Limite forestière
3 · Marqué
Sous la limite
2 · Modéré
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Points saillants

Rain and warm temperatures will have a destabilizing effect on the snowpack. Watch your overhead hazard as weak layers may "wake-up" with the potential for large avalanches.

Problèmes avalancheux

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Possible
    Taille
    3–5
    Warm temperatures and the load from rain may spark renewed destructive avalanche activity on weak layers near the base of the snowpack. These weak layers can surprise with nasty consequences. Wet slabs are also a concern at all elevations.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Likely - Very Likely
    Taille
    1–3
    Rain may trigger a round of pushy loose wet avalanche activity, especially in areas where loose snow overrides a hard crust. If precipitation falls as snow, dense and reactive storm slabs may form.

Confidence

Poor - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

A series of sub-tropical systems will make their way through the region on Wednesday and Thursday bringing moderate to locally heavy precipitation, freezing levels to about 2400m and strong southwest winds. By Friday, precipitation should taper-off dramatically with light snowfall, light southwest winds and freezing levels hovering at about 1500m.

Avalanche Summary

Numerous size 1 loose wet avalanches were observed in the Kootenay Pass area on Tuesday. Although observations have been limited, I suspect this activity has been fairly widespread. Rain may also spark destructive avalanche activity on persistent weaknesses which exist near the base of the snowpack. If you have any avalanche observations, please share them on our new Mountain Information Network. For more details, go to: https://avalanche.ca/blogs/VIYBuScAAJdbdqPz/m-i-n-intro

Snowpack Summary

Rain has likely saturated and weakened the upper snowpack in most areas. The extent of saturation will depend on elevation and the amount of rain that fell. At upper elevations, precipitation may have fallen as moist snow, and may be adding load and cohesion to a storm slab which overlies a weak layer of facets, surface hoar, a hard rain crust or a combination thereof. This storm slab has given easy results from light forces in snow profile tests. Near the base of the snowpack is a crust/facet combination which is more of a concern in the north of the region. This destructive layer continues to produce whumpfing, and may see a "wake-up" with warming and the load from rain or snow.

Régions couvertes