Wayne Flann Avalanche Blog: February 24, 2017

AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

An avalanche in the Talysh Mountains, China have killed 5 people: Story in article section. Net Pic

An avalanche in Kirovsk, Russia has killed a boy while snowmobiling, story below. Net Pic

An avalanche in Switzerland has killed a ski tourer, story below. Net Pic

Old avalanche debris still evident . Locally Sz 1 sloughing on steep terrain.

YESTERDAY:

Love is in the air, Thurday February 23, 2017.

Whistler Thursday morning.

Some clouds developed in the morning.

Thursday morning

Another awesome day!!!

Sledding conditions have been good!!

Late day sun.

More cloud development as the afternoon progressed.

Weather Observations for February 24, 2017: taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters -14, Winds were 15-30 KPH SE --Horstman Hut
2180 meters -12, Winds were 20-30 KPH SE --Whistler Peak
1860 meters -11, Winds were 0-5 KPH SSE--Rendevous
1835 meters -10, Winds were 5-10 KPH SE --Roundhouse
1650 meters -9, 1 cm of new snow, 1 cm in 24 hrs, 250 cm Base, RH 87% --Pig Alley
1550 meters -10, trace of new snow, trace in 24 hrs, 182 cm Base, RH 88% --Catskinner

660 meters -4, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +3.3, 0.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

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

FORECAST:

An upper level trough will bring cool overcast conditions this morning in a Southwesterly upper level flow. Isolated snow flurries are possible this morning, with a trend toward more unsettled weather by this afternoon. Saturday will likely start off unsettled with cloud increasing by the afternoon. The FL will remain below surface for the next few days. Sunday will be unsettled with a weak ridge expected for Monday with sunshine for most of the day. A moist front is forecasted to arrive Monday night into Tuesday with light snow and the the FL rising to about 800 meters. A series of frontal bands will pass through the area into next Friday. Guesstimates: Trace to 1 cm by Saturday morning, 2-4 cm by Sunday morning.

Upper level trough on the coast.

More cloud than sun Friday morning, unsettled by the afternoon.

Unsettled Saturday as well.

Unsettled weather Sunday.

Snow arrives again Monday night into next week.

More snow by the end of next week.

OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:

Marie-Hélène Burle

February 23 at 8:11pm

Lots of shallow but quite large wind slab avalanches at high elevation (mostly near ridges) on steep N aspects in the Duffey seem very recent. Most (all?) seemed skier triggered. We triggered one (soft slab) on the NW of Matier that propagated across most of the face. The E side of Anniversary Glacier was also wind loaded and slabby and could probably be triggered on steep convex rolls.

Christopher Chandler

February 23 at 11:18pm

Skier triggered slab in the banana shoot on fissile yesterday (last weekends soft snow sliding on the previous crust) Rider was fine, but lots of evidence of sluffing around though. The debris was soft, and rode fine today, with just some sluff.