Purcells

Natural avalanches occurred in the Dogtooth range on Sunday up to size 2.0 at treeline on North through East aspects.

Fair - Due to variable snopack conditions

Tuesday: Snow flurries with no significant accumulation expected. Strong NW ridgetop winds. Alpine temperatures falling rapidly to around -15C by the afternoon. Wednesday: Dry. Light to moderate northerly winds. Alpine temperatures around -16C. Thursday: Dry. Winds becoming westerly. Remaining cold, but a mild inversion should elevate alpine temperatures to around -10C.

The Purcell region has been getting less snow in the recent storms than the Selkirks. This means in most areas we have not reached critical threshold on a layer of large surface hoar and near surface facets that was buried mid-December. An exception to this is in the Dogtooth range, where avalanches to size 2 have been releasing on this layer. In most areas the mid-December surface hoar layer currently lies about 20cm below the snow surface. Some areas have a sun crust in the alpine on steep south and west aspects. There is a rain crust that is buried between 40-55 cm in some areas that reaches up to about 2200 metres. Lower in the snowpack, the mid-layers are well-consolidated and strong. Near the base of the snowpack there are a few layers that have the potential to wake up with a really big storm or very heavy loads. These include a surface hoar layer from early November, a crust/facet combo from October and the interface on steep glaciated terrain with snow that did not melt over the summer.