Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Skyline Area Mountains Issued by Brett Kobernik for Thursday - January 5, 2017 - 6:58am
bottom line

The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE today above 9500 feet on all steep slopes. There is a lot of uncertainty with the current avalanche conditions. You must treat situations like this as dangerous until we see otherwise. Anticipate touchy avalanche conditions today and avoid large steep slopes in the higher elevations.
current conditions

Snow and water amounts were much less than anticipated on Wednesday with only a couple inches of accumulation. Overnight, amounts were on the low end of the forecast also with 3 to 6 inches accumulation. It looks to me like the Fairview Canyon area did the best. That said, since Monday, overall snow depths have increased by 10 inches or so and we've added just over an inch of water weight.

The wind has switched around to the northwest and really dropped off in speed. Temperatures are in the mid teens.

Concerns still revolve around a layer of weak snow which formed on the snow surface between December 26th and January 2nd. It is still unknown if it will cause issues as we add more snow on top of it but it is definitely something to be aware of.

LINK TO VIDEO SHOWING TEST RESULTS ON WEAK LAYER
weather

We currently have snowfall and it should continue until tapering off later today. I'm anticipating 2 to 4 more inches of accumulation. Wind will be from the northwest in the light to moderate speed category and temperatures won't get out of the teens in the higher terrain. We have high pressure moving in for Friday and Saturday with fairly nice weather then another stormy period looks like it will impact us starting perhaps Sunday and lasting into next week.
general announcements

We will publish full detailed advisories Saturday and Sunday mornings by 7am. We will also be publishing basic avalanche danger ratings & info during the week.

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