Weather mullet - warm and sunny above, cold below

Afternoon road survey of conditions. Looking at cloud cover, avalanche activity, and the MLK rain crust.

• We checked out the northern Flathead Range, the Lake McDonald area, the west side f the Apgar Range, and the east side of the Whitefish Range south of Coal Creek.
• Inversions kept valley temps hovering just below freezing. Clouds at the top of the inversion kept a lid on radiation, though cloud timing varied in the areas we surveyed. It was sunny early afternoon over the Whitefish Range but still inverted in the northern Flathead Range and Lake McDonald. High clouds moved over the southern Whitefish and Swan Ranges mid to late afternoon, while the inversions in the park were lifting. 
• We saw roller balls on steep, sunny slopes at mid elevation, though these almost none of these entrained snow downslope. 
• Debris piles from wet loose avalanches appear to have run Sunday 1/19.
• The MLK rain crust is spotty at valley elevations - not present at road level in Nyack Flats, Lake McDonald valley, or the east side fo the Whitefish Range near Coal Creek. It was present at the Canyon Creek trailhead, where it was ~1/8" thick and topped with very small surface hoar crystals.

It appears cloud cover, winds, and maybe a few other factors conspired to tamp down wet loose snow avalanche hazard today.