The stretch of warm weather that’s about to settle into the Cariboo this weekend is going have an affect on the Avalanche Danger Ratings.
Avalanche Canada Forecaster Tyson Rettie said with the temperatures rising starting on Friday and peaking on Saturday, freezing levels might hit around 3,000 metres and with full sun they’re definitely expecting the avalanche danger to increase significantly.
He added there is a challenging persistent weak layer that was one of the main contributing factors to the recent special public avalanche warning and it’s still producing human triggered avalanches.
On Monday he noted with just brief periods of sun in parts of the Cariboo’s they saw an increase in natural avalanche activity, a few very large ones.
“We’ve had the considerable rating, tree line and above for much of the Cariboo and parts of the North Rockies for quite a while now and because of that, that activity just continues, and like I said as we get into the weekend we’re expecting the Danger Rating to go up to likely high at all elevations and expecting an increase large natural avalanche activity.”
Rettie said they’ve already seen large avalanches run all the way to the valley bottom and they expect that will be more widespread with the full sun and high freezing levels so it’s really important to stay out of avalanche terrain and be aware of what’s above you.