Northwest Coastal

Good - -1

Sunday should be a beautiful day in the mountains as an outbreak of cold, dry Arctic Air takes hold of the region. Expect alpine winds out of the N, NE with lower elevation winds out of the E. Temperatures dip down to -26 overnight with a daytime high around -10. This pattern looks to persist through Tuesday evening.

No recent avalanches were reported from the region. This may speak more to limited observations due to weather, rather than actual conditions.

Some areas (Terrace, Kaziks) are reporting an alpine snowpack of 5 metres. In these areas the mid-December surface hoar-facet layer is buried down about 250 cm and has not been reactive for quite some time. At this time the biggest issue in the region seems to be new snow instabilities. Although they can be quicker to heal than other weaknesses, they may be highly destructive, especially with this season's pattern of heavy accumulations of snow combined with strong winds.The region received 30 - 50 cm of snow since Wednesday. Wind data from the region is currently sparse, but it's fairly safe to assume that winds are at threshold values for wind slab development.On that note, we're heading into the first significant outbreak of Arctic Air this season. This cool dry air typically comes out of the NE at higher elevations while topography forces the air to move out of the East at mid/low elevations. This easterly wind is opposite of the typical westerlies, so, we call this "Reverse Loading." Backcountry users need to watch for wind slabs in unusual locations the next few days. The mid and lower snowpack is generally well settled and strong.