Temperatures did not get below freezing last night. Today look for sunny skies, moderate westerly winds, and scorching temps in the mid 50's. Temps will not drop below freezing tonight in most areas and thin cloud cover will further put a damper on things. The heat wave continues tomorrow as the ridge axis moves overhead. Monday will be a transition day as a low pressure system makes landfall on the coast of Southern California. Tuesday still looks like we'll some snow, with unsettled weather through the week.

A lack of an overnight refreeze, strong northerly winds during the week, and record breaking temps today are conspiring to create less than desirable snow conditions. In my travels yesterday I found limited opportunities for corn snow on southerly aspects and a lot of wind hammered surfaces on north facing slopes. Most surfaces this morning will be punchy and barely supportable at best, and they will quickly become wet and sloppy as the day heats up. As temps soar, loose, wet avalanches will become likely on steep, sun exposed slopes, especially in rocky or cliffy areas, and we may even see some wet slab releases.

On northerly aspects we still have a persistent weak layer of sugary faceted snow that formed during the Jan-Feb dry period. The weakest snow exists right around treeline and this is the most likely elevation band for you to trigger an avalanche 2'-3' deep. Above treeline, the location of this weak layer is much more variable while below, warm temps have helped to consolidate and strengthen the over-riding slab making avalanches failing on this weak layer less likely at lower elevations. In my travels yesterday, I did not find evidence that this weak layer would become more reactive from the heat, but weird weather creates weird avalanche conditions, and as weird as things are this weekend, I'm thinking anything is possible.

NWS Weather Forecast.