Northern Mountains This is Spencer & Nick in the Avalanche Center at 3 pm, Sunday, November 28, 2004. DISCUSSION The storm is beginning to taper off, but is not over yet. Expect snow through tonight, but nothing like yesterday. The upper level trough, currently over southern UT, should track across NM by Monday night. Cold air is following the trough, which will help to reduce snowfall accumulation on Monday. An up-slope should develop along the Front Range tonight and Monday. Tuesday a shallow ridge should build, and skies begin to clear. The forecast details: Sunday Night: Snow, additional 2-3". Winds NE/10-20. Lows -5 to 5. Monday: Mostly cloudy, shower, 0-2" especially near the Divide. Winds NE/15-25. Highs 5-15. Lows -10 to0. Tuesday: Partly cloudy. Winds N/10-20, swinging W in afternoon. Highs 10-20. SNOWPACK We have issued an AVALANCHE WARNING for all mountains of Colorado. Despite low visibility, numerous natural avalanches have been reported from most mountain locations. Control work on the highways and at ski areas have produced many artificially triggered avalanches. The backcountry avalanche danger is overall HIGH for all our forecast areas. Abundant new snow fell, 15 to 30 inches in some places, has fallen on top of a weak snowpack. The load is now enough to cause avalanches that are running down into older snowpack layers, making for sizable avalanches. We've had reports of remotely triggered avalanches, shooting cracks, and collapses in the snowpack. These are sure signs of instability, and mean that sizable avalanches could be triggered from a distance. This morning, control work at Loveland Pass produced avalanches in paths that ran yesterday. There were 26 avalanches reported from Summit County before noon today, in spite of little visibility. Many of these were from a wide-spread natural cycle, with many running to the ground. Several natural avalanches reached the road in the San Juans. Natural avalanches were seen on Wolf Creek Pass. The snowfall winner is Gothic, reporting 32 inches, which may be a 24 hour record. Backcountry travelers in all mountain areas should avoid travel in or below avalanche terrain. S Logan/ N Logan