Today...Breezy...cloudy. Slight chance of snow in the morning... Then snow in the afternoon. Snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Highs 23°F to 29°F. Southwest winds 15 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 80 percent.

Tonight...Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Lows -5°F to 1°F. Northwest winds around 15 mph. Wind chill readings -12°F to -22°F.

Wednesday...Colder. Partly cloudy. Highs 8°F to 14°F. North winds around 15 mph in the morning. Lowest wind chill readings -14°F to -24°F in the morning.

Wednesday Night...Mostly clear. Lows -3°F to -11°F.

Thursday...Not as cold. Mostly sunny. Highs 19°F to 25°F. Lowest wind chill readings -14°F to -24°F in the morning.

Thursday Night...Mostly clear in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. Lows -1°F to 9°F.

Friday...Partly cloudy. Highs 22°F to 28°F.

Friday Night...Partly cloudy in the evening then clearing. Lows 2°F to 10°F.

Saturday...Mostly sunny in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Highs 24°F to 30°F.

Saturday Night...Partly cloudy. Lows 5°F to 13°F.

Sunday...Mostly sunny in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Highs 25°F to 31°F.

Sunday Night...Partly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of snow after midnight. Lows 6°F to 14°F.

Monday / Martin Luther King Jr Day...Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of snow in the morning...then chance of snow in the afternoon. Highs 24°F to 30°F. Chance of snow 30 percent.

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Mountain Weather

Under sunny skies temperatures reached the mid 30's Fahrenheit yesterday with westerly winds averaging 10-20 mph. Today will be different. A dynamic and moist cold front will roll through this afternoon bringing snowfall through tonight. West winds have already increased to 20-30 mph and will notch higher while temperatures fall to the single digits Fahrenheit this evening. The mountains should get 3 to 6 inches by tomorrow morning; however, it's a strong northwest flow and dare I suggest the Bridgers may get a wee bit extra?

Snowpack and Avalanche Discussion:

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

The chances of triggering an avalanche have decreased significantly over the last few days. We are not finding nor hearing of instability like cracking, collapsing and natural avalanche activity. The last human triggered avalanche we know about was on Saturday in the Cabin Creek area of the southern Madison Range. Snowmobilers triggered a slope that narrowly missed a rider parked in the runout zone. On Sunday, three of us toured into Bacon Rind and found plenty of faceted snow, but stubborn stability test results. We could still see cracks and buckling on the snow surface from eight days ago, but could not get anything to move.

Yesterday, my partner and I toured into Hyalite in the northern Gallatin Range. This zone has some of the strongest snow around, but I was still able to find facets surviving. On a south facing slope the weakest layer were small grained facets sitting on an ice crust 18 inches from the surface. On northeast aspects I could not find this layer. At the ground I could still scoop out large facets, but these were not showing instability in my extended column tests.

Although the likelihood of triggering an avalanche has diminished since the avalanche warning on New Year's Day, the snow structure is still weak. Sugary, unbonded snow is not our friend, no matter how well it's behaving. Because it is still possible to trigger an avalanche, the Avalanche Danger is rated MODERATE throughout the entire advisory area today.

Beacon Parks

The Friends of the Avalanche Center installed a Beacon Training Park outside West Yellowstone last Friday. It's located south of town on the main snowmobile trail. Stop by and do a quick practice before heading off into the mountains!

The next advisory tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. If you have any snowpack or avalanche observations, drop us a line at mtavalanche@gmail.com or call us at: 406-587-6984.

EDUCATION, EVENTS, PHOTOS, SNOWPITS, and VIDEOS

1. We've recently uploaded more photos and snowpits to our web site, more than what are linked in the advisory.

2. We're creating a series of "How To…" stability test videos. So far we've got clips on performing a CT and ECT. There are located under Stability Tests on the Resources page.

3. Check out all our education programs, Click Here.

Information provided by Doug Chabot, Mark Staples, and Eric Knoff from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. For Events and Education, or Photos and Videos, please visit the Avalanche Centers Website!

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.