Special Avalanche Warning, Sunday Feb. 26, 2012.

This advisory expires in 24 hours

AVALANCHE WARNING

Expect the avalanche hazard to increase throughout this storm.  Over the past 17 hours we have recieved over 14″ of new snow.  This is concern for a red flag.  In addition, a predominately southerly wind has been gusting to 30mph for the past 10 hours on the F-CNFAIC Marmot anonometer.  The combination of rapid loading from new snow and significant winds may tip the stress/strength balance in the snowpack.    We can expect soft slabs to be forming on northerly aspects with the addition of new snow and wind.  The weather outlook looks like more snow and wind for the next 24-48 hours.

This advisory expires in 24 hours

BOTTOM LINE: Low level hazard with pockets of moderate at high wind loaded elevations. Natural avalanches are unlikely, and pockets of human triggered avalanches are possible but not probable.

TREND: Stable

DISCUSSION: The snow gods have once again blessed Hatcher Pass by pressing the reboot button with 8-12″ of new snow. The new snow landed with little wind and the landscape looks once again like our snowy December.

Although persistent grain types and weak layers exist within the snowpack and show poor structure on various aspects, the energy in the snowpack remains low. Variability in the snowpack exists so keep a close eye on these layers and keep looking underneath at weaker faceted layers amongst hard and soft slabs as the season progresses into a spring snowpack.

Test results and observations today all confirmed what we have been seeing for the past month. High strength, fair to poor structure, and low energy. No natural or human triggered avalanches were observed today.

Pat attention to the snowpack as it changes with increasing radiation and rising temperatures. Although the most recent snow poses low danger now, that could change with a big blast of sun. Continue to evaluate the upper layers of the snowpack for loose snow avalanches and sluffs on southerly slopes at mid-day.

pits

-Allie Barker