May 4, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    A different perspective of the Fitzsimmons Slide.                            Andrew MacNaughton Image



    YESTERDAY:

    Wednesday morning May 3, 2017. A wet morning.

    Early Wednesday morning.

    Raining lightly in the morning. +3 AT 2240 Meters..

    Early Wednesday morning.

    Later in the afternoon, 3.9 mm of rain recorded at 1550 meters between 06:30 - 14:30 Hrs yest.

    Visibility at 2240 meters.


Weather Observations for May 4, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2240 meters      +4, Winds were 35-50 KPH S  --Horstman Hut 
1860 meters      +6, Winds were 25-55 KPH SE--Rendevous
1550 meters      +5, 0 cm of new snow, 0 cm in 24 hrs, 240 cm Base, RH 98%  --Catskinner 

  660 meters      +6, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +11.5, 9.5 mm of Precip recorded yest

    As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have broken cloud and unlimited visibility. Sunrise was at 05:42 Hrs.


FORECAST:

Dry and unsettled weather for this am with showers and a risk of thunder this pm in a Southerly flow aloft. The FL will hover in the 3200 meter range with overcast skies by this afternoon. A trough will move in for this evening with heavy precipitation expected for Friday morning. The FL on Friday will range from 2200 meters in the morning to 1000 meters in the evening with the passing of a cold front. As of now Saturday is looking unsettled with the possibility of some snow showers, with a weak ridge building. By Sunday we could see sunny weather as the ridge strengthens.
Guesstimates: 5-10 mm by Friday morning, 8-12 mm of rain switching to 2-4 cm by Saturday morning, trace -1 cm by Sunday morning.

    GOES IR image from this am.

    Dry in the morning, with overcast showery weather in the afternoon.

   Wet Friday morning.


    INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Fitz Slide circled, observed on Tuesday.                                                 Andrew MacNaughton Image

Bram Whillock May 3 at 1:28pm

Just a heads up. Our friends across the border have issued a special avalanche warning for the huge warming trend happening today & tomorrow. Avalanche Canada is no longer issuing public forecasts, but that doesn't mean everything is good to go. Check article at bottom of page for special avalanche advisory.

    CPD seminar at the CAA meetings.

   After the fact.

   Unsettled weather in the Okanagan yesterday.

   Half a moon.

   On the way to Skaha Lake.

ARTICLES:

Special Avalanche Advisory: Northwest Avalanche Center

Leash Laws-When to use Pole Straps in the backcountry: Backcountry Magazine

Road closure due to High Avalanche Danger: Mont Rainier National Park

Optimising avalanche rescue strategies using a Monte Carlo simulation approach: PLOS-One