The weekend of March 4/5 was highlighted by increasingly strong winds, with upper elevation gusts over 70 mph at many mid and upper elevation stations. These winds were ahead of a vigorous cold front that hit the Wasatch mountains early Sunday evening, where some even heard the sound of a thunder as it roared out a warning of the approaching storm.

For those that did not seek shelter from the storm, by Tuesday morning they would have found storm totals including 11-16” in the Ogden, Park City and Salt Lake mountains. (Significantly less snow fell in the Provo mountains where 2-3" was reported.) However, although wind speeds diminished after the passage of the cold front on Sunday, westerly winds remained moderate to strong at both the mid and upper elevations through midweek, with significant wind affected snow with wind-scouring on westerly aspects and widespread wind drifts on easterly aspects.

By Tuesday most observers were noting the drifts had quickly stabilized and were stubborn and unreactive to stability tests. One exception to this occurred on Wednesday as a 150' wide skier-triggered wind slab avalanche was reported on a northeast aspect in Cardiff Fork. Clear skies and warming temperatures Wednesday and Thursday introduced the usual spring regime of loose wet activity, especially on sunny aspects.