December 6, 2016

AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    An avalanche buried two weather technicians in Sochi, story in article section.                   Net Pic

No new avalanche activity reported locally. Temperature gradient is prime for facet development. There are areas where the 16-11-12 Mfcr is 30-60 cm below the snowpack, faceting will be occurring on the crust. Something to be wary of. Cold temperatures until Wednesday, with the possibility of alpine temps remaining cold into the weekend.




    YESTERDAY:

    Cloudy in the morning, Monday December 5, 2016. Very light snow briefly.

    Sun tried to make an appearance mid morning.

    It did lighten up for a while.

    Cloudy in the morning.

    Image taken from same time frame as satellite image below.

    Low won out with cloudy conditions in the afternoon.

    16:00 Hrs Monday and snowing very lightly..


Weather Observations for December 6, 2016,: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters  -17, Winds were 15-25 KPH NE  --Horstman Hut Station
2180 meters  -19, Winds were 10-20 KPH NE  --Whistler Peak
1860 meters  -16, Winds were 10-20 KPH NE  --Rendevous
1835 meters  -16, Winds were   5-15 KPH E    --Roundhouse
1650 meters  -14, trace of new snow, 1 cm in 24 hrs, 156 cm Base, RH 92%  --Pig Alley
1550 meters  -13, trace of new snow, 1 cm in 24 hrs, 106 cm Base                  --Catskinner 

  660 meters    -9, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was -2.8. 0.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

FORECAST:

The high lost yesterday, but has strengthened today with a strong East-Northeast flow. Arctic out break will bring sunny skies to the area . Wednesday will see some cloud move into the area in the afternoon with the next weak frontal band arriving on Thursday. Models are not in agreement on snow amounts as a low pressure off the coast develops and brings several frontal bands in a Westerly flow into the area over the weekend. There will still be some influence from the arctic high to the Northeast. Lets hope the frontal bands do not migrate South. Still early but more on that as we get closer. Dress warm today if you are venturing out. -17 in the alpine with a 25 KPH wind equates to a wind chill factor of -28. Conservative Guesstimates: 5-15 cm by Friday morning, 5-20 by Saturday morning-depends on which model is the most accurate. There is still a chance that everything could line up perfectly and we could get 40+ cm!!!

    Tuesday Morning

    Ridge appears to strengthen as the day progresses.

    Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday morning.

    Battle of the high and low.




ARTICLES:

An Avalanche in Sochi has buried two avalanche workers: Russia

Considerable Avalanche danger in Northwest Montana: Flathead Avalanche Centre

Avalanche Awareness Classes Scheduled for Dec 15 & Jan 10 in Bozeman: Montana

Fractured Lines: Kevin Davis

    Gloomy early in the morning.

    Interesting light when it lightened up.

    7 TH Heaven Lift.