Regional Summaries

This past week's little storms left most their load west of the divide. Avalanche hazard has risen and in much of the Columbia Mountains it is now Considerable hazard in the alpine, potentially rising to High with the next storm by Sunday. If the forecast strong SW winds come to the Rockies the avalanche hazard will spike there too as wind slabs build mass. As we all know, Considerable hazard is when the accidents seem to happen most, and as Steve mentioned last week this is about the right time of the year for the first avalanche incident -- so don't let it happen to you this weekend.

It's been a stormy week, as everyone knows whether they've been into the alpine or not (mostly not from the sounds of it), with precipitation amounts between 20-70 cm.

In the Columbia and Rockies winter-like conditions exist with a snowpack depth ranging from 50 up to 120+ cm above 2000 m. Below 2000 m coverage tapers off. In the Rockies, and especially east of the divide very cold temperatures down to -25 C and winds from the north have been reported.

It was a cold and damp day in most parts of the summary region. The precipitation ended on the East slope of the Rockies which is too bad as the southern foothills could really use some rain.

Gorgeous autumn days in the Rockies and Columbias but it is a bit complicated up high. The little bit of snow we had last weekend has stuck and melted and frozen into some pretty good conditions until things changed yesterday and today. Temperatures got well above freezing in the alpine, especially today with a strong inversion and it looks like it covered a large part of the Rockies and Columbias. Only real time report was from Abbott Pass this morning. It was 8c and it sounded like the rockfall yesterday and today was big and busy.