The precipitation from last week’s Atmospheric River with reports of extensive natural avalanches. Strong Southwesterly winds formed Wind Slabs on all aspects. As the system departed, the Southwest flow veered to the Northeast As the system departed, forming additional Wind Slabs primarily on NW-W-SW-S-SE aspects. Winds decreased through the early part of the week allowing the recently formed Wind Slabs to slowly stabilize. Winds are forecasted in increase Thursday with dense snowfall, which will begin a new round of Wind Slab instability throughout the the mid to upper elevations.
Warming temperatures over the past few days helped to settle and strengthen the snowpack as a whole but southerly aspects began to shed some of the recent new snows with widespread Loose Wet avalanches, primarily below ~ 11,000’. The next system may well bring additional rain to the Lower elevations saturating the recent snowfall, which will increase the potential for Loose Wet releases. Be on the lookout for moist surface snow, pinwheels rolling down around you, and steep rocky terrain.