December 17, 2017

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    No local observations, Loose dry Size 1-1.5 with ski cuts on the Duffy.



    YESTERDAY:

    Saturday morning was overcast.

    Cloud layers moved around on Saturday.

    Some breaks in the afternoon.

    Dusk on Saturday.

    After sunset, mid mountain layer.


Weather Observations for December 17, 2017 taken at 06:00 Hours.

2180 meters      -5, Winds were 45-55 KPH SSW--Whistler Peak
1835 meters      -2, Winds were 15-45 KPH SW--Roundhouse
1660 meters      -2, 2 cm of new, 5 cm in 24 hrs  Base 141 cm --Pig Alley

  660 meters     +1, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was +1.1, 0.7 mm of precip recorded yest

    As of 07:00 Hrs this am we have overcast skies and variable visibility. Fresh snow on the ground.


FORECAST:

A strong west flow aloft will bring a warm front to the area with the FL rising to 1500 meters by tonight. A cold front will follow the warm front on Monday with the FL slowly dropping to surface by tomorrow night. A deep low will slide over Southern BC Monday night with moderate to heavy precipitation before sliding Southeast Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning.  We will see snow in the valley. A dry Northwest flow aloft will move in Wednesday bringing mostly sunny conditions to the area into next weekend, with the FL below surface. At this point it is difficult to put a finger on precip amounts for Tuesday but if the vigorous cold front stays on track we could get a nice dump.
Guesstimates: 10-15 cm by Monday morning, 8-12 cm by Tuesday morning, 25-50 cm by Wednesday morning.

   GOES IR image from this am.

     High will send some warm air in the Lows Westerly flow.

    High sags a bit Sunday with cooler temperatures from the low.

    If the low stays on track we could see up to 50 cm by Wednesday morning. Cold as well.

          Looks like it sags slightly to the South but lets keep our fingers crossed.




INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Saturday was Santa Clause day on the hill.

    Nice to see the snowline to the valley again.

    Low level cloud was in and out most of the day.

    Breaks later in the afternoon.

    Saturday afternoon.


Recent Avalanche Canada MIN Report: Duffy Area


ARTICLES:

Review of French Avalanche Incidents 2016/17: Pistehors.com

Snowpit Visualisation for Avalanche Professionals: SnowPilot

Free food for Colorado resort workers: Denver Post