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I will be talking about assessing snow stability and lessons learned from last season's avalanche involvements at a "Tour Talk" at Prodigy Brewing in downtown Logan on Wednesday, December 17.
Rain turned to snow early this morning in the mountains above about 7000 feet in elevation. On Logan Peak at 9700 feet, it's 31°F and increasing winds are currently blowing from the southwest 42 mph, and gusting to 66 mph. Temperatures have dropped to 33° F at the Tony Grove Snotel at 8400 feet, reporting an inch of new snow and 24 inches of total snow. At 9500 feet on Paris Peak, it's a cool 26°F with 25 to 42 mph winds blowing from the southwest.
As heavy snow is falling at upper elevations, drifting by strong winds will create thick wind slabs, often well below ridgelines. The process is called preferential deposition, and it can deposit thick wind slabs low on slopes and in mid-slope terrain features, where we normally might not expect to encounter wind slab issues. The new snow is falling on a widespread thick and hard rain crust that caps the dense snow from the December 5/6 storm, and it's all overlaying a sugary, persistent weak layer near the ground. The hard crust is 4 to 6 inches thick, but you sink right through it in boots, and through the sugary November snow below it to the ground. In most areas, we think the thick crust will hold the snowpack together on most slopes for at least a few loading events.
It will snow today, with 3 to 5 inches of accumulation possible at upper elevations and temperatures dropping to around 22° F. It will be quite windy in the mountains with strong winds gusting from the southwest this morning, but veering from the west-northwest during the day. A wintry weather pattern is expected to continue through the latter half of the week, with 2 to 4 inches of accumulation possible tomorrow. More snow is expected at upper elevations with another wave of storminess Friday night and Saturday.
No new avalanches have been reported since last week. For all observations and avalanche activity in the Logan Zone, go HERE
