January 4, 2018

    AVALANCHE ACTIVITY:

    An avalanche in Italy has killed 2 people. Story in article section.                                     Net Pic

    An avalanche has killed a hiker in Switzerland. Story below.                                              Net Pic

    Locally, No new avalanche activity noted for yesterday.



    YESTERDAY:

    Blue bird in the morning.

    Snow in the trees (valley) with inverted temperatures.

    Cord on Horstman Glacier. Skied well yesterday

    Spring like skiing on the Sewar.

    Lots of turns on Decker.

    Bluebird at the end of the day.



Weather Observations for January 4, 2018  taken at 06:00 Hours.

2180 meters    +2, Winds were 15-20 KPH SE--Whistler Peak
1835 meters    +4, Winds were   5-10 KPH SE--Roundhouse
1660 meters      0, 0 cm of new, 0 cm in 24 hrs  Base 179 cm --Pig Alley

  660 meters     -9, Valley Temp, Max Temp Yesterday was -1.3, 0.0 mm of precip recorded yest

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



FORECAST:

A weak front will eventually bring cloudy skies to the area today as a low pressure centre off the Southwest Coast brings a Southerly flow aloft. Freezing rain is possible later today in the valley with the freezing level slowly dropping from 2200 meters to 1800 meters by tonight. A slightly stronger cold front arrives Friday morning with light/moderate precipitation, the FL will slowly descend during the day from 2000 meters to around 1500 meters. Some snow in the forecast for Saturday with the FL eventually dropping to around 900 meters. More snow expected Sunday into Monday but the models are all over the map so more on that as we get closer.
Guesstimates: 2-4 mm with 2 cm in the alpine by Friday morning,  8-12 cm by Saturday morning with 6-8 mm proceeding the snow, 4-6 cm by Sunday morning, 10-15 cm by Monday morning.

    GOES IR image from this am.

     Low will send a warm weak front at us today.

    Freezing rain later in the day is possible.

    Fronts along the coast today.

   Rain expected on Friday, slowly changing back to snow.





    INFORMATION & OBSERVATIONS:

    Tracks & Sastrugi.

    Surface Hoar developing at 900 meters.

    Thin crust with surface hoar in the valley.

    Still cold in the valley.

    Surface Hoar just below treeline.

    Busy out in the backcountry, Cowboy Ridge is looking well used.


Recent Avalanche Canada MIN Reports:

Blackcomb>Mt Currie Traverse


From South Coast Touring:

Mystrey Creek



ARTICLES:

German mother, daughter killed in Italy avalanche: Val Verosta

An avalanche has killed a hiker near the resort of Kandersteg: Switzerland

Large avalanche near Turnagain Pass simply misses pair of skiers: Alaska

Helicopters toss turkey-sized explosives to combat avalanches: Colorado

Freezing rain warning issued for later today: Whistler