Our standard transect of the Juneau area urban paths. Last night's heavy precipitation and SE winds to 15+ m/sec with warming temperatures and the snow level rising to about 700 m, combined with a weak snowpack to produce the expected avalanche cycle. The snowpack had a weak layer of 10 cm of faceted grains on top of a faceted melt freeze crust, overlain by 10 - 20cm of dry snow drifted over it earlier in the week, then rapidly loaded by last night's fresh snow and stressed by rain to higher elevations.

Because the slabs were still relatively thin, the volume was small despite some releases covering large areas. Debris reached low elevations due to the low friction bed surface and weak layer.

All slabs were classified as SS-NO-R2 to 3-D2 to 3-O, soft slabs naturally released by wind, rain, and rapid loading, size 2 to 3 on the relative scale (R) of path capability and size 2 to 3 on the destructive potential (D) scale of 1 to 5, releasing in the old snow facet and faceted melt freeze layers.

12-13 Addendum:

We have a report this morning of a sizable skier-triggered slab in the East Bowl Chutes at Eaglecrest yesterday, confirming that the snowpack remains tender.