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Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Mark Staples
Issued by Mark Staples for
Monday, November 21, 2016

The avalanche danger is Low and for most of us, there really isn't really enough snow on which to recreate.

I will update the advisory tomorrow morning, and we will continue to issuing intermittent updates depending on the weather.

Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Special Announcements

Some ski resorts have closed their mountain to uphill traffic, including SNOWBIRD. If you're heading to a ski area please check in with the individual ski resort and find out their uphill traffic policies. If you walk up one ski area with another adjacent to it, please respect and check in with the sister resort before riding down into their resort.

Between now and Jan 15th: Donate to the Utah Avalanche Center by shopping at Whole Foods Market Utah! When you visit any Utah Whole Foods Market locations, bring your re-usable bags, Whole Foods will donate a dime per bag to the Utah Avalanche Center - if you say DONATE my bag credit.

Weather and Snow

The rain/snow line is above 9000 feet this morning with rain below that elevation and snow above it. Most of the overnight precipitation fell north of Salt Lake City. The mountains near Ogden recieved 0.5 inches of rain while areas to the south recived 0.1-0.2 inches of rain with only an inch or two of snow falling above 9000 feet. Winds were generally blowing 10 mph gusting to 20 mph from the SW this morning.

Recent Avalanches

No backcountry avalanche activity has been reported.

Ad
Avalanche Problem #1
Normal Caution
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Old snow that has persisted at high elevations (above 10,000 feet) on shady aspects has weakened and faceted. Fortunately there simply isn't very much of this old snow to create a widespread hazard. Watch this video for some cool aerial footage filmed last week of the central Wasatch mountains. As more snow hopefully falls this week, watch for spots where new snow rests on pockets of this old weak snow. These are places where you could get a small avalanche.

The photo below shows dense new snow on top of old weak snow. This layering can produce avalanches.

Check out the video below showing the distribution of old snow from aerial footage collected at the end of last week in the central Wasatch mountains.

Aerial Mapping of the Wasatch from Trent Meisenheimer on Vimeo.

Additional Information

Today temperatures at 9000 feet will climb into the mid to upper 30's F, and winds will blow 10-15 mph from the W. Precipitation will continue to fall today and into the early evening. Above 9000 feet by tomorrow morning, about 5 inches of snow should accumulate. Tomorrow morning will be about 10 degrees colder than it is this morning. A brief ridge of high pressure will bring out the sun tomorrow afternoon. The next chance of snow will come with another trough of low pressure on Wednesday evening.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.

To get help in an emergency (to request a rescue) in the Wasatch, call 911. Be prepared to give your GPS coordinates or the run name. Dispatchers have a copy of the Wasatch Backcountry Ski map.

Backcountry Emergencies. It outlines your step-by-step method in the event of a winter backcountry incident.

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, but no one is hurt and you do not need assistance, please notify the nearest ski area dispatch to avoid a needless response by rescue teams. Thanks.

EMAIL ADVISORY If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you will need to subscribe here.​

DAWN PATROL Hotline updated daily by 5-530am - 888-999-4019 option 8.

TWITTER Updates for your mobile phone - DETAILS

UDOT canyon closures: LINK TO UDOT, or on Twitter, follow @UDOTavy, @CanyonAlerts or @AltaCentral

Utah Avalanche Center mobile app - Get your advisory on your iPhone along with great navigation and rescue tools.

Powderbird Helicopter Skiing - Blog/itinerary for the day

Lost or Found something in the backcountry? - http://nolofo.com/

Ski Utah mobile snow updates

To those skinning uphill at resorts: it is critical to know the resort policy on uphill travel. You can see the uphill travel policy for each resort here.

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you shop from Backcountry.com or REI: Click this link for Backcountry.com or this link to REI, shop, and they will donate a percent of your purchase price to the UAC. Both offer free shipping (with some conditions) so this costs you nothing!

Benefit the Utah Avalanche Center when you buy or sell on ebay - set the Utah Avalanche Center as a favorite non-profit in your ebay account here and click on ebay gives when you buy or sell. You can choose to have your seller fees donated to the UAC, which doesn't cost you a penny.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always exist.