Heavy and steady precipitation with strong winds will continue to develop significant storm slabs, especially in lee areas in the alpine and at treeline. It is a good day to stay away from avalanche terrain.
Storm slabs will continue to develop throughout the day, especially in lee areas in the alpine and at treeline. It is almost certain that this new snow will not bond very well to the variety of previous surfaces and will produce a natural avalanche cycle. It is a good day to stay away from avalanche terrain.
A series of weather systems are set to hit BC in the next few days bringing precipitations, mild air and strong mountaintop winds.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Snow, 10-15 cm, 30-50 km/h southerly wind, alpine low temperature -4 C, freezing level at 1200 m.
MONDAY: Snow, 15-25 cm, 30-50 km/h southwesterly wind, alpine high temperature -1 C, freezing level at 1700 m.
TUESDAY: Snow, 20-25 cm, 30-50 km/h southwesterly wind, alpine high temperature 0 C, freezing level at 1700 m.
WEDNESDAY: Periods of snow, 10-15 cm, 20-40 km/h southerly wind, alpine high temperature -2 C, freezing level at 1500 m.
No new avalanche was reported on Saturday and a human-triggered storm slab size 1.5 was reported on Sunday.
About 20-30 cm of storm snow is covering a variety of surfaces including the widespread mid-February crust, wind affected snow and pockets of wind slab in exposed high elevation terrain, a suncrust on solar aspects, low density facetted snow on northerly slopes and spotty surface hoar in very sheltered lower elevations. It is unknow how this new snow will bond to the previous surfaces but we are expecting it will not bond very well.
A weak crust layer from mid-February is now down around 20 cm in the north and as deep as 70 cm in the south. Also, a weak crust/facet/surface hoar interface from late-January is buried down 40-100cm. This layer was most reactive between 1700 m and 2000 m in the north of the region. While this layer has been dormant in most of the region lately, large loads such as heavy snowfalls and cornice falls could wake it up and produce very large avalanches.
