There is a storm on our doorstep that may produce 5 to 9 inches of new snow in the mountains. This will land on top of the current snow that's on the ground which has weakened (turned sugary) over the last couple of weeks. This is cause for concern as more storms roll through.

The snow that fell earlier in November has sat around now for about two weeks. This is never a good thing, especially when the snowpack is thin. As the snow sits for long periods of time it becomes faceted (sugary). When it is still on the surface (like today) it is not dangerous. It becomes dangerous once it is buried and has significant enough snow on top of it (possibly tomorrow). At that point the old sugary snow acts as a weak layer and all the snow above it can avalanche. The tricky thing is knowing when there is significant enough new snow on top of the old weak sugary snow to cause avalanches. It may take a few storms before it builds up enough to become active.

For today we'll see high clouds with temperatures cooling into the teens by afternoon. Wind will be moderate in speed from the west southwest. We may start to see some snowfall this afternoon but the majority will happen overnight as the flow shifts northwest and colder air moves in. The storm will move out Tuesday morning. There is another storm shaping up for around Friday and another one for early next week.