Hey wow, holy shit it is hot outside and it's only 11am. With this weekend's forecast, people will be freaking everywhere outside. We're planning a mountain bike ride near Roslyn on Saturday, other friends are going camping, and another crew is ski touring around Rainier. But lest you forgot your high school chemistry classes, the effect of heat on frozen substances is to cause them to melt. In this case, very suddenly and there's still a lot of snow out there. Much more than we're used to having in mid-May.

So in case you're not with us by this point: DO NOT GO INTO AVALANCHE TERRITORY THIS WEEKEND. Also, rivers you might have crossed before are likely to flood; two people died at Rainier last year trying to ford something they shouldn't have. (Although we've also heard that there's still so much snow packed into canyons and crevices up in the mountains that there's literally nowhere for the melt to go...yet.) Going anywhere near snow? Check the NW Avalanche forecast first; when we say "anywhere near snow" we really do mean it:

This upcoming hot weather is expected to cause a widespread spring avalanche cycle in most areas starting later Thursday. The relatively prolonged hot weather should melt and weaken significant near surface snow and allow melt water to possibly percolate to deeper older weak layers. This is most likely on slopes facing the sun but should also be likely on any steep aspects. Deep avalanches are possible. Some slides may release to or near the ground, involving the entire winter’s snowpack. The expected large wet snow avalanches may travel very fast and run long distances, possibly to lower elevations where little or no snow cover may remain or to valley floors.

Lecture over, now go enjoy yourselves.