May 15, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    No new avalanches were observed yesterday.


    YESTERDAY:

    Nice sky early Sunday morning May 14, 2017.

    Looking towards Mt Currie Sunday morning.

    Less blue as the day went on.

    Sunday morning 07:45 Hrs.

    Some precipitation arrived in the afternoon.

    Snowing on the Spring Parade.

    Big Picture 16:30 Hrs Sunday.

    Still an awesome day.

    A few breaks later in the afternoon.

    You can still see the ribbon of snow to the base of Blackcomb.

   Sunset was at 20:50 hrs on Sunday.


Weather Observations for May 15, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters      -5, Winds were 30-40 KPH SE--Horstman Hut 
1860 meters      -3, Winds were 15-30 KPH SE--Rendevous
1550 meters      -1, 1 cm of new snow, 1 cm in 24 hrs, 220 cm Base, RH 98%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters     +5, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +12.7, 0.0 mm of Precip recorded yest

    As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have overcast skies, variable visibility and it is snowing at 1860 M.



FORECAST:

An upper low out of the Gulf of Alaska will sweep down the coast today with precipitation in a Northwesterly flow aloft, turning Westerly later in the morning. We will see snow in the upper elevations as the FL is at around 1400 meters, it should rise to about 1600 meters than drop back down to 1400 meters tonight. The cold upper level low will move Southeast Tuesday with a warm frontal band pushing into our zone with the FL rising to 2000 meters by mid day. We should see some light snow early Tuesday morning in the upper elevations, turning to rain at around 1600 meters by the afternoon. A drier Northerly flow will develop behind the warm front for some unsettled weather by Tuesday night. A weak upper level ridge will begin to have some influence on Wednesday with unsettled weather associated with convective showers throughout the day and the FL reaching 2200+ meters. This pattern will likely continue into Thursday with the ridge strengthening for Friday into Saturday.
Guesstimates: 10-15 cm in the alpine by Tuesday morning, 5-8 cm in the alpine by Wednesday morning, 2-4 mm of rain in the alpine by Thursday morning. Snow amounts today will depend on how close the frontal band works its way inland.

    GOES IR image from this am.

    Low moving down the coast will bring rain today.

    Flow for today.

     Low moves East on Tuesday

    Monday into Friday, weak ridging by Wednesday.

    Ridge will have some influence by Wednesday.

    OBSERVATIONS & INFORMATION:

    Lower Mountain snow is melting quickly.

    Looking West as the Snow arrives.

    Looking Northwest at the same time.

    Overcast for most of the day.

    Park goers were having a great day.

    Very quiet at the base of the mountain Sunday evening.

    Manicured and natural.

ARTICLES:

Avalanches create new habitat for plants and animals: WSL, Switzerland

Evaluating Avalanche danger in a warming World: Forbes

Saying goodbye to Glaciers: Science Daily

New research sheds insight into Montana's retreating Glaciers: Flathead Becon