Use caution around wind-loaded areas at upper elevations.
Lee terrain features could have new thin wind slabs that form on Tuesday night as well as older wind slabs from last week's storm. Prevailing wind has been from the south and southeast, so north-facing slopes in the alpine and along ridgetops are most suspect.
No avalanches have been reported since a cycle of small storm slabs occurred on Friday Dec 31 (size 1 to 1.5).
Continue to support your backcountry community and please consider submitting a MIN report.
30 to 40 cm of snow from last week is settling over a melt-freeze crust above 1000 m. A thin layer of facets could exist around this interface. Strong southerly winds have redistributed available snow into wind slabs on north and east aspects and cross-loading on others. Below 1000 m the snow surface could still be moist.
Terrain below treeline has limited or no coverage.
Tuesday night
A weak frontal system will bring 5 to 15 cm of snow above 500 m and rain below 500 m, 30 to 50 km/h wind from the southeast, treeline temperatures around -2 °C.
Wednesday
Cloudy with sunny breaks in the afternoon, no significant precipitation, 40 to 60 km/h wind from the southeast, freezing level fluctuating between 1000 and 1500 m in the afternoon with treeline temperatures hovering around 0 °C.
ThursdayCloudy with 5 to 15 mm of mixed precipitation as freezing levels fluctuate between 1000 and 1500 m, 50 to 80 km/h wind from the southeast.
FridayStormy with 25 to 50 mm of precipitation with the heaviest accumulations on the west and south side of the island. Freezing levels climbing to 1200 m will likely results in mixed precipitation types at treeline and rain below 1000 m. 60 to 80 km/h wind from the southeast.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
