Today...Partly cloudy. Highs 13°F to 19°F. West winds around 15 mph in the afternoon. Lowest wind chill readings -31°F to -41°F in the morning.

Tonight...Partly cloudy. Lows -6°F to 0°F. Southwest winds around 15 mph. Wind chill readings -12°F to -22°F.

Thursday...Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Highs 18°F to 24°F. Southwest winds around 15 mph early in the morning becoming southwest around 15 mph in the afternoon. Lowest wind chill readings -14°F to -24°F in the morning.

Thursday Night...Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Lows 4°F to 10°F. Southwest winds around 15 mph.

Friday...Partly cloudy. Highs 23°F to 29°F.

Friday Night...Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows 8°F to 14°F.

Saturday...Partly cloudy. Highs 30°F to 36°F.

Saturday Night...Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Lows 14°F to 20°F.

Sunday...Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow. Highs 27°F to 33°F.

Sunday Night...Mostly cloudy in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of snow. Lows 12°F to 18°F.

Monday...Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Highs 30°F to 36°F.

Monday Night...Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Lows 13°F to 19°F.

Tuesday...Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Highs 31°F to 37°F.

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Mountain Weather

Under clear skies mountain temperatures are in the single digits below zero Fahrenheit this morning. In the Bridger Range winds shifted last night from the east to the west at 20-25 mph. West to northwest winds are blowing 15-25 around Big Sky, but are less than 10 mph around West Yellowstone and Cooke City. Mostly sunny skies will help raise temperatures into the low teens as high pressure builds this weekend. Temperatures will drop to near zero Fahrenheit tonight with no likelihood of precipitation.

Snowpack and Avalanche Discussion:

The Bridger and northern Gallatin Ranges:

The Bridger and northern Gallatin Ranges got hit with east winds yesterday, a rare occurrence. These created cornices and drifts on west facing slopes that are now getting re-blown 180 degrees. I get dizzy just writing about it. The bottom line is that winds are depositing snow in unusual places. With almost 30 inches from the weekend, there's more than enough snow to drift. Besides windblown snow, there are small grains of facets underlying the new snow. This layer avalanched on Sunday near Frazier Lake in two separate skier triggered slides. One person was flown by helicopter to the hospital with a broken femur. Yesterday, Eric took a picture of an avalanche in Argentina Bowl to the south of the Bridger ski area. We know that winds stripped this weak layer away on some slopes, but certainly not all. On Sunday, Eric and I found that it's alive and well around Mount Blackmore.

Given the large snow load, buried weak layer and recent winds, the Avalanche Danger is rated CONSIDERABLE.

The Madison and southern Gallatin Ranges, the Lionhead area near West Yellowstone, the mountains around Cooke City and the Washburn Range:

From Big Sky to West Yellowstone to Cooke City, the new snow buried a weak layer of facets that formed on the snow surface 10 days ago. This layer is now under varying depths: 8 inches in the Lionhead area to over 20 inches outside Cooke City. A natural avalanche on Fan Mountain on a wind-loaded slope, coupled with smaller avalanches in Beehive Basin illustrates this instability around Big Sky. Mark and I got a slope to collapse and crack on this layer in Lionhead, and we found this weakness to be widespread. This layer is easy to find. Simple hand pits uncover it. Riding around we found that slopes touched by the wind cracked and small pockets avalanched. Around Cooke City there was minimal avalanche activity with the new snow, but we know the recipe for avalanches is the same as elsewhere: soft slabs of snow capping a weak layer.

For today, given the increasing winds and lots of snow available for loading, the Avalanche Danger is CONSIDERABLE on all wind-loaded slopes steeper than 35 degrees. All other slopes have a MODERATE Avalanche Danger.

Information provided by Doug Chabot, Mark Staples, and Eric Knoff from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center.

If you have any snowpack or avalanche observations, drop them a line at mtavalanche@gmail.com or call: 406-587-6984.

For detailed Avalanche Terms utilized here, please see the Avalanche Glossary.

West Yellowstone: Beacon Park Operational

Skiing or riding near West Yellowstone? Test your beacon skills at a beacon park near the old airport where you can search for pre-placed beacons switched on/off by a control panel. Look for it by orange snow fence and signage just south of the snow cross track.

9th ANNUAL KING AND QUEEN OF THE RIDGE

The 9th Annual King and Queen of the Ridge will be held at Bridger Bowl on Saturday, February 12. ALL proceeds go to the Friends of the Avalanche Center who use the money to promote avalanche education in southwest Montana. Last winter we taught 64 classes reaching over 4,900 people. You can help raise money to continue this education in 2 ways:

1). Get pledges and hike the ridge. You don't have to do 20 laps – you can get flat pledges and hike just once! Or you can test your mettle and try and break John Yarington's record of 29 laps in 5 hours.

2). Sponsor someone. If you don't have someone to sponsor, consider sponsoring the GNFAC since we'll be hiking for dollars. Click Here for more information and registration forms.