Warm temperatures are here for a little while. In the early days of the warm spell our snowpack will tolerate slight warming, but if the solar input is high, or temperatures really spike, we will see windslabs becoming more sensitive. Watch temperatures and sun exposure carefully.
Avoid hollow feeling wind slabs in alpine terrain, especially near thin or convex terrain. The wind slabs are also found at treeline but in more isolated pieces of terrain such as small gullies.
A sz1.5 windslab was reported today in the Mt Buller area. Alpine terrain, 30°, north aspect and looked like a pocket of hardslab. Unknown trigger.
Up to 5cm of recent snow is overlying mostly wind slabs in the alpine. These near surface wind slabs continue to be the most concerning issue in our snowpack. They are essentially widespread, but vary in thickness and density. Areas of hard slab are the most concerning as they are the most likely to propagate. In sheltered areas, or areas that haven't seen travel the snowpack is still very weak. While walking or skiing it isn't uncommon to punch to ground. Snowpack depths remain well below average. The snow profile below shows how weak the snowpack is in most areas.
Overnight low of -10 and a daytime high of -5 for Friday. Worth mentioning is today's (Thurs) daytime high was just above zero at the road. We're at that time of year when its difficult to predict temperatures. Tomorrow could be warmer than predicted. Cloud cover tomorrow will help limit solar, but some sun will still creep through. No snow and light winds will round out the forecast for Friday.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
