It is hard to think about rain while it is currently puking snow outside. However, it looks like we can expect temperatures to rise over the next couple of days, with some hard rain arriving early Tuesday morning. The rain will keep up through the day, and should turn to snow as temperatures fall Tuesday night.
The negative aspects of rain are obvious. Rain drops pounding on the roof may be the most depressing sound you can hear in the middle of winter. That feeling when you’ve been skiing in the rain for an hour, and it finally starts to soak through your hat or helmet and start dripping freezing water into your hair is something we all dread. These two phenomena have only one known cure: day drinking.
But, this short rain event may be a good thing for us in the long run (not so good if you’re only visiting for a few days). The rain should thoroughly saturate the snow pack, and hopefully compact and break down some of the weaker layers in there. It should also kick off some big slides, and clean out some of those fat hard slabs that have been waiting to go.
A rain crust will likely form as temperatures cool Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, which will be a new weak layer ย in the snow pack going forward. Expect all slopes below the freezing level on Tuesday to have a very reactive soft slab for some days following.
