Loose Wet
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Possible
- Dimensione
- 1–2
Cloud cover for much of the night and warmer overnight temperatures means a weaker overnight refreeze. The thin surficial refreeze that formed after the clouds cleared will melt quickly today and expose deep wet snow on many slopes. Sluffs of wet loose snow will become possible earlier today than on previous days. These wet loose avalanches may start small (D1) but will gather more snow as they slide downhill. On longer slopes, they could entrain enough wet snow to cause problems (D2). Terrain traps like cliffs, gullies, creekbeds, etc could make the smaller wet loose avalanches have larger consequences. The most sun-exposed E-SE-S-SW-W aspects will be the most prone to wet snow instabilities, but the high sun angles and warm temperatures could allow wet snow to form on some of the NW-N-NE aspects as well. In some places, afternoon cloud cover and gusty SW winds may help slow the melting process down on some upper elevation wind-exposed slopes. The prolonged warming will also weaken cornices that survived the previous NE wind events.
The window for supportable snow will be short today and the change to unsupportable, deep, wet snow will happen fast. As soon as any signs of wet snow instability like roller balls, pinwheels, wet sticky snow, or ankle-deep wet snow start to occur it is time to move to a different aspect with less wet snow or switch to using terrain less steep than 30 to 35 degrees without steeper slopes above to minimize exposure to potential wet snow avalanches.