Washington, Idaho mountains on high alert for avalanches
SPOKANE, Wash. — Avalanche warnings have been issued for local mountains in both Washington and Idaho.
The Washington Cascades are currently under high avalanche alert, with most all of the mountains being warned through Monday. It’s mostly due to the powerful winter storm blowing through, combined with the warming weather.
The Northwest Avalanche Center says the Cascades could produce some destructive avalanches, running a full path to valley bottoms and creating a lot of debris. They advise everyone to keep their distance from avalanche terrain and to stay away from steep slopes to avoid creating an avalanche.
The Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center also has similar warnings. Advisories are in effect for Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties. They say heavy snowfall turning into heavy rain is creating some scary conditions, forming storm, wind and wet slabs.
Snowpack is becoming unstable, so human-caused and natural avalanches are much more likely to occur. The public should avoid avalanche terrain and steep slopes in those counties, as well.
So if you want to hit the slopes before the end of the winter season, be careful where you tread.
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