Maritime

Problemi valanghivi

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  Storm Slabs

  N

  NE

  E

  SE

  S

  SW

  W

  NW

  • Alta quota
  • Limite del bosco
  • Sotto il limite del bosco

  Probabilità

  Possible

  Dimensione

  1–1.5

  Snowfall skipped our area yesterday and stayed off to the west.  The forecast looks favorable for snowfall today, although accumulations look light as the current front is decaying as it moves inland.  A Moderate hazard level has been posted due to the uncertainty of snowfall amounts today and the potential for a late arrival of snowfall that could begin to put stress on a weak layer of snow.

  Faceted snow exists at the surface that will likely act as a weak interface if snowfall does materiaize.  Lower snowfall amounts will be required to create unstable storm slabs than what is typical due to the faceted snow mentioned above.  Watch for areas of wind loading where even a small amount of new snow could be stacked up into deeper pockets on the lee side of terrain features and ridge lines and be more sensitive to human triggers.  

   Since the weak layer is very close to the surface signs of instability such as shooting crack and/or collapsing will likely be present where unstable snow exists.  Keep in mind that even shallow avalanches can be dangerous if they occur in consequential terrain or above terrain traps where the debris can stack up deeply.

  Areas where new snowfall is less than 4 inches and recent windloading has not occurred the hazard will be low.

   

  

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  Glide Cracks

  • Tutte le quote

  Probabilità

  Unlikely

  Dimensione

  2.5–3

  Be aware that several glide cracks exist in our forecast area with a couple full depth releases occurring in the last week.  Most of these exist in the Maritime zone on southerly aspects of town mountain and Mile high at mid elevation.   A few others have been noted, although they appear to be concentrated in the zone mentioned above.  Glide avalanches are a strannge beast that act differntly than other avalanche problems.  Full depth failure can occur independent of snowpack stability.  Or in other words, they can release even when a stable snowpack is in place.

  Since it is not possible to time their sensitivity the only way to mitigate this hazard is by avoidance.  First identify where glide cracks exist and avoid spending time beneath them.  Glide cracks are easy to identify.  They look like crevasses, but exist in non glaciated terrain.

  These do not produce small avalanches,  but rather failure will include the entire snowpack.