December 24, 2015

    Picture from yesterday, East aspect of Oboe.  Looks like a Size 2 Sa?                 Matt Gunn Photo

Did a fracture line profile on the slide in the above pic Dec 22 Nd. Crown was 75cm deep. Failure plane was 151217SH lyr 5mm still producing CTM10,11. There was actually two layers buried on the 15th and 17th , 10mm and 5mm respectively. Hst at this elevation has settled enough to form a soft slab since it fell last weekend.......From Anton Horvath

    Joffre Shoulder Sa, Approx 30 cm soft slab, Dec 23. Bruised shoulder.      Bram Whillock Image

    First ride up at 07:30 hours Wednesday December 23, 2015.

    Every once in a while there would be a break in the clouds.

    Big sucker hole late in the morning.

    2 cm of snow recorded at 1650 meters by 14:00 Hours on Wednesday.

    Snowing lightly at 17:00 Hours.


Weather Observations for December 24, 2015: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters      -9, Winds were 0-5 KPH ESE        --Horstman Hut Station
2180 meters      -8, Winds were 8-12 KPH ESE      --Whistler Peak
1860 meters    -10, Winds were calm                      --Rendevous
1835 meters      -9, Winds were calm                      --Roundhouse
1650 meters      -8, 13 cm of new, 15 cm in 24 hours 195 cm Base, Relative Humidity 97%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters      -8, 10 cm of new, 140 cm Base        --Catskinner 

  660 meters      -4, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was -0.4. 2.9 mm of precipitation recorded

    As of 07:00 Hours this am we have broken cloud, unlimited visibility at 1835 m snowing lightly.


For the forecast, the upper level trough that moved through last night is slowly moving Southeast in a Westerly Flow Aloft. We can expect flurries this morning and should see unsettled conditions later in the day as an upper level ridge builds into the area for Christmas Day in a Northerly flow. Sunny skies will prevail for the 25Th, but after that there is some uncertainty in the models. We could see the ridge remaining on Saturday or the chance of some overcast skies with flurries. We may be going into a split flow regime which is typical of an El Nino year. That means dry cool unsettled conditions may prevail for a few days.  More on that in tomorrow's post. Guesstimates: 2-4 cm by Friday morning.

    Very light flurries this morning before the upper level ridge builds.

    Cool and dry for Christmas Day.

    We may see sun on Saturday morning or perhaps the next front may move in sooner?




ARTICLES:

Snowboarder survives Whistler Avalanche after being buried in a tree well: CBC

Another possible snow immersion death at Mount Washington: CBC News

Upside-Down winter pattern across US linked to El Nino: East Oregonian

Winter 2016; The sum of all our fears--Pistehors.com

Drones banned by Ski Federation after racer nearly hit: CBC News

Over 36 Avalanches this week in Colorado: UnofficalNetworks

    Some cloud in yesterdays image.

   Looking unsettled in the big picture.

    Still evidence from all the wind events in the past week.

    Skiing in and beside the trees was quite nice Wednesday.