Loose Wet
- Alta quota
- Limite del bosco
- Sotto il limite del bosco
- Probabilità
- Possible
- Dimensione
- 2
Last night's clear skies will have allowed the snowpack to lose enough heat for some overnight refreezing even though temperatures remained above freezing in many areas. The strong March sun and warm daytime temperatures will quickly melt through this refreeze in most areas, and deep unsupportable wet snow will form on many slopes today. The forecasted cloud cover and slightly increased winds do have the potential to slow down the melting process if they materialize. After going through several days of melt freeze cycles the snowpack has transitioned to more corn snow conditions in some areas and not in others. Once the refreeze melts, loose wet snow avalanches in the form of roller balls, pinwheels, and point releases will become possible again today especially on slopes where the wet snow exists on top of drier colder snow with less well established drainage channels. The sun exposed E-SE-S-SW-W aspects hold the best potential for loose wet avalanches. Most of the loose wet snow instabilities should remain small, but some of them could still entrain enough snow to cause problems for backcountry travelers.
Use clues like sinking into boot-top deep wet snow and smaller surface wet snow instabilities like roller balls and pinwheels to indicate that enough wet snow exists for problematic loose wet avalanches. These signs indicate that the time has come to move to more frozen slopes, move to less steep slopes, and/or switch activities for the afternoon.