900 AM PST WED FEB 27 2008 && ZONE AVALANCHE FORECASTS * OLYMPICS- WASHINGTON CASCADES NEAR AND WEST OF THE CREST- Wednesday: LOW avalanche danger below 7000 feet early. Gradually increasing danger later Wednesday becoming MODERATE above 5-6000 feet and LOW below. Thursday: Decreasing generally LOW danger below 7000 feet through Thursday night. * WASHINGTON CASCADES EAST OF THE CREST- Wednesday: LOW avalanche danger below 7000 feet. Thursday: LOW avalanche danger below 7000 feet. * MT HOOD AREA- Wednesday: LOW avalanche danger below 7000 feet. Thursday: LOW danger below 7000 feet through Thursday night. SNOWPACK ANALYSIS Little or no new snow has accumulated since mid-February. The lack of recent snow along with sunny conditions and periods of very mild daytime and cool overnight temperatures have all allowed the snowpack to settle and consolidate. A thick very supportive surface crust on most sun exposed aspects or well settled stable snow on shaded aspects is causing a low avalanche danger in most areas. Recent nice corn snow conditions have been reported on sunny aspects of late. On north aspects at higher elevations some shallow powder snow or near surface faceted snow is maintaining some soft and relatively stable surface snow over firm settled underlying snow. Last weekend some 3 to 6 inches of snow was received mainly over Mt Hood and up to about Mt Rainer in the Washington Cascades providing a nice cushion to the otherwise firm snowpack. Any shallow wind deposited layers associated with this snow has now likely settled and stabilized due to the recent mild temperatures over the past few days. DETAILED FORECASTS WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT Cloudy with periods of light rain or snow showers, mainly Olympics and north part later Wednesday at gradually lowering snow levels. Only very light amounts of new snow are expected and with only moderate crest level winds. This should cause a slight danger increase later Wednesday; mainly near ridges as some pockets of shallow wind deposited layers may form. Elsewhere firm surface snow layers should maintain mostly stable snow and a continued low danger. THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT Cloudy early and becoming partly to mostly sunny later Thursday and Thursday afternoon with gradual warming and light winds. This should allow for some limited surface snow melt on sunny aspects and a slight danger increase during the warmest part of the day on some steep sun exposed slopes. Otherwise, firm surface or near surface snow should maintain a low avalanche danger through Thursday night. &&