(COLORADO) — An Avalanche Warning is now in effect for parts of the high country, including the San Juans and Sangre de Cristo Mountains from Tuesday, Feb. 6 at 4:30 p.m. to Friday, Feb. 9 at 9:00 a.m.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported on its website that heavy snow and strong winds are creating dangerous avalanche conditions. The heavy snow is from an atmospheric river that brought dangerous flooding to Southern California earlier this week and is expected to bring snow to Southern Colorado on Wednesday.
“With an atmospheric river, we are looking at a pretty good stretch of water pumping right into the Southern Mountains and that’s perfect for really heavy snowfall events with lots of water falling in a short amount of time. When it falls on a weak snowpack like we have right now, that will produce an avalanche,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC).
Green said that one of the primary reasons CAIC is concerned about avalanche danger in the Southern Mountains is actually due to our dry fall season.
“That dry weather in fall is perfect to generate that weak snow we have been talking about. When there is nothing on top of that so it’s not that big of a deal,” said Greene, “Once we got to Martin Luther King Day weekend and that almost week long period of stormy weather, we started to see larger and larger avalanches and by the end of that stormy period, we were seeing pretty destructive slides. So now any time we get a pretty big snow storm, like we just saw one in the Central and Northern Mountains this last week, that’s why we are so interested in this atmospheric river event in the Southern Mountains this week.”
As far as what you can do to avoid avalanches, it can be as simple as checking a website.
You can check the avalanche forecast by checking CAIC’s website here.
“The first thing is to check the avalanche forecast, just like you would if you were going into the mountains or the woods, or anywhere in Colorado during any time of year,” said Greene. “During the winter time it is something you can consider when you are making a plan for recreation.”
