Forecast for the Skyline Area Mountains

Brett Kobernik
Issued by Brett Kobernik on
Sunday morning, January 5, 2020
There is a MODERATE avalanche danger on upper elevation steep slopes that face north through east. This means human triggered avalanches are possible. Avoid steep wind loaded slopes and you'll avoid trouble today. Outside of wind affected terrain the avalanche danger is much lower.
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Apologies for dropping the ball on publishing Saturday's forecast on time. I made an error after compiling the forecast and didn't realize it until late in the day. Please feel free to contact me through our main menu About->Contact if you are not seeing a daily forecast published by 7:30am. I do make mistakes from time to time so please alert me if you see anything odd.
Weather and Snow
Saturday brought very mild temperatures with highs in the mid 30s and a period of strong southerly wind. Riding conditions were damaged in many areas but many areas were also spared. There was some snow getting transported and some fresh drifts were forming. Overall, the snowpack remains fairly stable. You can find shallow areas where the snowpack is not all that strong. We really need to see some more storms soon or the snowpack will deteriorate further and become weaker. Below is a one minute review of the past week:

Weather: Today will start out pretty nice but we'll see increasing southerly wind during the day. We'll also see increasing clouds ahead of a weak storm system that will move through tonight bringing a chance of snow. I'm only expecting a trace to a couple of inches of snow accumulation. The next chance for snow is a storm shaping up for Wednesday through Thursday. Currently this doesn't look like a huge snow producer either but it looks like it'll give us a bit more than tonight's storm.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Recently formed wind drifts are your main concern today. There was quite a bit of wind with the New Year's storm and also a spike in wind speeds on Saturday. You will find many areas in the higher terrain that are wind affected. You will want to avoid freshly formed drifts on the steep slopes in the upper elevations.
Additional Information
This forecast is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.