There is a 20cm winter storm warning for Jasper to Saskatchewan crossing. Higher amounts may occur locally particularly with strong winds. This new input is expected to raise the avalanche hazard over the next couple days.
Strong to extreme SW winds plus storm snow amounts will form wind slabs. Watch for this condition to develop in lower elevations and in non-typical locations.
Sunday night's storm may bring 20-30cm of snow in a short duration. This new load will test our snowpack.
The bottom of the snow pack is inherently weak with well developed Facets and Depth Hoar. Numerous large natural and explosive triggered avalanches in the past week have run on this layer.
Sunday's Icefield patrol had windy conditions and poor visibility. Nothing new was observed. Natural avalanches up to size 2.5 were observed in the icefields region, initiating in alpine and exposed tree line features on Saturday.
Avalanche control with explosives on Wednesday resulted in numerous large avalanches running to the bottom of the avalanche paths.
Don't forget to post avalanche observations to the MIN.
Sunday night's storm may add 20-30cm of new snow and windy conditions. This will be redistributed by the winds and add to the 10 to 30cm that fell last week creating wind slabs in the alpine and exposed tree line. Generally, the mid and bottom of the snowpack is weak facets with depth hoar at the base.
A 20cm storm warning is issued for Highway 93 Jasper to Saskatchewan River Crossing beginning Sunday evening. Locally amounts may increase to 30cm. Expect strong southwesterly winds gusting to 60 km/h. The storm will taper off Monday afternoon.
Detailed weather forecasts from Avalanche Canada: https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
