Yesterday's foray into the upper reaches of the Old Ski Bowl found sun-affected snow, evident in two obvious ways. The first is a firm melt-freeze crust that was present all the way up into OSB. The second was evidence of prior wet loose slides below nearly every rock face with a E-SE-S-SW aspect. Solar radiation is real this time of year, and its effects were everywhere. Cornices were visible on nearly every NE ridgeline. Obvious avalanche debris sits below many of them, but plenty of snow is still built up and ready to slide. We found a significant temperature inversion as we climbed into the clouds and experienced a bit of a greenhouse effect. Although noticeable to us, it wasn't doing much to soften the overall snowpack up high. Things remained firm the entire time we were up there.
Today is going to remain dry and relatively cold. That brief foray we had into warm, spring sunshine looks like just a tease for the time being. Ridging will build in overhead today, keeping the region dry with milder afternoon temperatures through Saturday. Lows Friday morning will still be chilly across the area, but are expected to be warmer than this morning.
The upper ridge holds through Saturday night, so it`ll remain dry then. However, a deep upper trough over the Gulf of Alaska will begin to head our way, and it looks like these will drag several Pacific frontal systems our way through early next week. This means a cooler, and sometimes wetter pattern, especially in the Monday-Wednesday time frame. A slower front would allow another fairly mild day Sunday, while a faster one would bring more cloud cover and increasing rain and snow. At this time, it appears rain is likely to develop (55-70% chance) along the coast by Sunday afternoon with some precipitation chances in our neck of the woods come Sunday evening. Snow levels ahead of this front will be in the 5000- 7000 foot range. The chilly pattern of spring thus far will continue, and, you guessed it, with lower snow levels. Accumulating snow is likely again in the mountains for the early part of next week. Snow levels could get down to 2000-2500 feet both Tue/Wed mornings before bumping back up each afternoon. Gotta love the spring time!
