March 15, 2016

    Size 2 avalanche that buried snowmobiler on Crowfoot Mtn, update in article section.   SAR Pic

    Snow guns were on Early Monday morning, March 14, 2016.

    Early morning light was very cool.

    Flute first light Monday.

    Black Tusk being shrouded in cloud.

    An amazing morning with approaching cloud.

    Cloud moved in with light snow by 08:45 in the morning.

    Plate stellar's were falling in the morning, we had some graupel in the afternoon.

    Snowing at the tube park Monday the 14Th at 17:00 hours.


Weather Observations for March 15, 2016: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters     -9, Winds were 20-30 KPH S       --Horstman Hut Station
2180 meters     -8, Winds were 30-35 KPH SSW --Whistler Peak 
1860 meters     -8, Winds were 15-25 KPH SE    --Rendevous
1835 meters     -7, Winds were 20-40 KPH S      --Roundhouse 
1650 meters     -5, 4 cm of new snow, 5 cm in 24 hrs, 370 cm Base, RH 92%    --Pig Alley
1550 meters     -6, 4 cm of new snow, 5 cm in 24 hrs, 289 cm Base, RH 93%    --Catskinner

  660 meters      0, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +4.5. 1.3 mm of Precip recorded yest

    As of 07:00 Hours this am we have broken cloud and unlimited visibility.

For the forecast, an unsettled day in a drying trend as the upper ridge begins to build offshore. The FL will start off near surface and rise to about 900 meters before descending to the valley tonight in a Northwesterly flow with snow flurries. By Wednesday we may see some lingering cloud in the morning with sun expected by the afternoon as the upper ridge builds. The ridge strengthens for Thursday into Friday with mostly sunny skies, some cloud development and warmer temperatures by Friday. Thursday appears to be a bluebird day. As of now a weak slightly moist onshore flow will arrive sometime Friday night into Saturday. More on that as we get closer. Guesstimates: 1-4 cm by Wednesday morning.

    Westerly flow will switch to Northwesterly by this afternoon as the ridge builds.

    Today will still have cool showery weather with some sunny breaks in the afternoon.

    Upper Ridge amplifies offshore and low level flow becomes Northerly on Wednesday.

    High pressure for Wednesday into Thursday.

   Looking off into the future-- A series of fronts are forecasted to return for early next week.



ARTICLES:

Size 2 avalanche buries snowmobiler, took one hour of probing to find him: Mountain Journey

Avalanches have claimed 10 lives in Western Canada this season: CFJC Today

Humans have triggered the last 16 record breaking Hot Years: Science Daily

Video of the fracture line from deadly Italian Avalanche: PlanetMountain.com

Winterstoke-Backcountry Festival: March 19-20, 2016

Don't Mess with the 'Brown Frown"-Glide avalanche problems in Alaska: Alaska Avalanche School

    09:15 Hrs Monday morning March 14, 2016.

    Big picture from Monday March 14, 2016.

    Really big picture from Monday.

    Cornice blast on KC, Whistler Monday morning.                                 Michael Cooperberg Image

    Sunrise Monday was officially at 07:27.

    Going for the vertical!!

   All good things usually come to an end.

    Snow makers digging out the snow making gear on Horstman Glacier.