Avalanche Canada is asking back country users in the Kamloops-area to be careful.

Forecaster Anne St. Clair says the avalanche risk today is “considerable” in the North and South Columbias.

And she says that risk could increase tomorrow, Jan. 8.

“A powerful storm is impacting the region and its bringing intense snowfall and some strong winds and this is also bringing significant amounts of new snow to our mountains and burying some weaker layers of old snow,” she told NL.

“This creates complicated and hazardous conditions in the mountains.”

Regardless of your skill level, St. Clair is urging people to stay out of the back country due to the heightened risk of avalanches.

“In conditions like these, regardless of skill level, travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended,” St. Clair said. “With high avalanche danger, we expect that there will be large avalanches in many areas in avalanche terrain.”

There is more snow expected later this week, but she noted it’s hard to predict what conditions would be that far out.

“Our mental model is pinpointed and narrowed and focused on the next 24 hours, and what will then occur within the next 48 hours,” noted St. Clair. “We are constantly updating our mental model for what’s to come, so beyond Thursday, I just don’t have a lot of confidence in being able to tell the public what to anticipate.”

Thursday’s avalanche risk in the North and South Columbias is expected to be considerable.

“We are encouraging folks to get the gear, get the training, and get the forecast,” said St. Clair.