New snow arriving in our region will increase the avalanche hazard.
Watch for reactive slabs as you travel through the terrain, especially in exposed areas.
By the end of the day Saturday much of our region will see significant snowfall amounts. Storm slabs should be expected.
Winds associated with this system will be moving around whatever snow is available so you should also expect deeper-than-expected deposits of snow that will also be reactive.
On Wednesday, our field team reported a size 2 natural storm slab avalanche and a size 1.5 wind slab avalanche in the northern part of the island. Incoming snow and winds could produce reactive slabs such as these this weekend
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Snow arriving Friday night and into Saturday will join the 20 to 30 cm that fell earlier this week. Variable winds have and will continue to redistribute this snow so expect to find wind slabs on all aspects.
A crust that formed at the start of this past week can be found 35 to 45 cm down in sheltered areas. This crust is widespread and can is expected to exist all the way to mountaintops. In exposed areas, the wind has either covered this crust with a wind slab or has completely scoured the snow off of it. Anything that covered the crust as it was forming is bonding well, this may not be the case for anything that covers it going forward.
The lower snowpack contains a number of crusts but they are not a factor at the moment. It is consolidated and well-settled.
Friday Night
Cloudy, up to 5 cm accumulation, winds northwest switching to the west by morning 15 to 30 km/h, treeline temperatures -8 °C.
Saturday
Cloudy, up to 20 cm accumulation, less in the central-eastern sections, winds southwest 35 km/h gusting to 70, treeline temperatures -5 ºC.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with late day sun, 13 to 17 cm accumulation by morning, winds west 20 km/h gusting to 45, treeline temperatures -5 ºC.
Monday
Cloudy, up to 15 cm accumulation focused in the central-eastern sections, winds southeast 20 to 40 km/h, treeline temperatures -7 ºC.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
