Avalanche warning issued for Olympic Mountains

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, March 20, 2012

An avalanche warning has been issued for the Olympic Mountains for today:

…AVALANCHE WARNING TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT FOR THE OLYMPICS…

WASHINGTON CASCADES NEAR AND WEST OF THE CREST… MT HOOD AREA…

A STRONG APPROACHING FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL CAUSE HEAVY SNOW LOADING

WITH STRONG WINDS OVERNIGHT AND TUESDAY. THE NEW WIND DRIVEN AND

HEAVY SNOWFALL WILL LOAD EXISTING WEAK LOW DENSITY POWDER SNOW THAT

HAS BEEN DEPOSITED OVER THE PAST THREE DAYS. THE CURRENT WEAK

SURFACE SNOW CONDITIONS WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS NEW HEAVY SNOW LOADING

CAUSING A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN THE DANGER BY TUESDAY.

AS A RESULT OF THESE DEVELOPING DANGEROUS AVALANCHE CONDITIONS A

WARNING IS BEING ISSUED AHEAD OF THIS STRONG EXPECTED STORM FOR THE

OLYMPICS AND WEST SLOPE CASCADE AREAS.

SIMILAR HIGH AVALANCHE DANGER CONDITIONS SHOULD DEVLOP AT HIGHER

TERRAIN ALONG THE EAST SLOPES TUESDAY.

AS A RESULT OF THESE DEVELOPING DANGEROUS AVALANCHE CONDITIONS…

TRAVEL IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN IS NOT RECOMMENDED TUESDAY.

THIS STATEMENT WILL BE UPDATED AS CONDITIONS WARRANT. PLEASE VISIT

WWW.NWAC.US FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

BACKCOUNTRY TRAVELERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT ELEVATION AND

GEOGRAPHIC DISTINCTIONS ARE APPROXIMATE AND THAT A TRANSITION

ZONE BETWEEN DANGERS EXISTS. REMEMBER THERE ARE AVALANCHE SAFE

AREAS IN THE MOUNTAINS DURING ALL LEVELS OF AVALANCHE DANGER.

NWAC WEATHER DATA AND FORECASTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE BY CALLING

206-526-6677 FOR WASHINGTON, 503-808-2400 FOR THE MT HOOD AREA,

OR BY VISITING OUR WEB SITE AT WWW.NWAC.US.