Purcells

This forecast was build on limited field reports. If you head out into the mountains please tell us about the conditions you found. Send your observations to [email protected]

Poor - Due to the number of field observations

Synopsis:  Southerly flow will continue to generate precipitation over the southern interior,  Thursday will see drier conditions before an approaching trough off the coast forces a southerly flow pattern again on Friday. Tonight and Wednesday:  Light precipitation continuing through the night, tapering off Wednesday afternoon - trace to 10 cm  cm of snow at upper elevations. / Moderate westerly winds /  Freezing levels falling to 1500mThursday: Sunny with cloudy periods and chances of flurries / Light southerly winds / Freezing levels 2000mFriday: Flurries / light southeasterly winds / Freezing levels 2000m

Small slabs have been recently triggered naturally and by skiers in areas where the upper snow is moist and sits above a crust. At lower elevations and on solar aspects small to large loose wet avalanche continue to be triggered on steep slopes. Cornices collapses have been reported during periods of daytime warming. Occasionally these heavy triggers have caused large deep slab avalanches on the slopes below.

Snow line reached up to 2000m yesterday.A fresh crust on all but high elevation North aspects may now be buried up to 5 cm of new snow.  Below this 10 to 30cm of snow overlies older melt-freeze crusts from earlier in the month. Wind slabs can be found in lee features on N and E aspects in the Alpine.Several persistent weak layers still exist in the highly variable snowpack of the Purcells:-The mid-March sun crust/surface hoar layer down 50-80cm and the early-March crust/facet/surface hoar layer down around 80-120cm seem to be laying dormant for the time being.-The mid-February crust/facet/surface hoar combo is typically down 60 - 120cm. Direct triggering of this layer has become unlikely, however, cornice fall, a smaller avalanche in motion or prolonged warming may wake this layer up. The resulting avalanche would be very large and destructive.- Weak basal facets can be found in many areas, however triggering this layer is unlikely.