Winter returns today with cold temperatures that will be refreezing the snowpack making avalanches unlikely and the avalanche danger will be LOW this morning. By later this afternoon as new snow accumulates and winds increase from the west, watch for soft slabs of wind drifted snow that will raise the danger to MODERATE on wind loaded slopes above treeline. The main danger from these wind slabs will be triggering one that sweeps you off your feet and causes an uncontrollable fall on hard icy snow.
As cold temperatures help the snowpack refreeze and harden today, the only avalanche concern will be shallow, soft slabs of wind drifted snow from increasing winds from the west. They may be shallow, but they will likely run far and fast on top of hard, icy snow.
The last daily forecast will be Sunday, April 23. We will provide intermittent updates with any storm until Sunday, May 7th and will continue posting backcountry observations until then.
There were no reported avalanches yesterday but few people were out. I suspect there was the normal wet loose avalanche activity on sunny slopes.
This morning, temperatures started dipping below freezing around 3 a.m. and have been hovering around 30 degrees F since then. At upper elevations, winds from the southwest are blowing 16-27 mph and gusting to 43 mph.
Today, a cold front will bring very cold air and steadily dropping temperatures which could drop into the teens F by the end of the day. Winds this afternoon will increase and blow from the west 30-40 mph.
Cloudy skies will bring maybe 5 inches of snow by the end of the day.
Yesterday, strong sunshine and high temperatures in the upper 40s F melted the snow surface which should be refreezing this morning. There should still be wet snow under an ice crust that will thicken and harden as cold temperatures arrive today.
This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
