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Forecast for the Logan Area Mountains

Trent Meisenheimer
Issued by Trent Meisenheimer on
Friday morning, November 24, 2023
Update for Friday, November 24 at 8:05 AM
Today, we expect dry-loose avalanches and small new snow soft slab avalanches across all aspects and elevations. On mid and upper-elevation northerly-facing slopes, it will be possible for a human to trigger an avalanche 1-2' deep that fails deeper in the snowpack on fragile faceted snow.
Evaluate the snow and terrain carefully; identify features of concern. Natural avalanches will be unlikely; human-triggered avalanches will be possible.
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Check uphill travel policies at resorts before you head up to their terrain.
Weather and Snow
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the Logan area mountains. It’s snowing, and mountain temperatures resemble what winter should feel like. In many locations, the current winds are blowing from the southeast at speeds of 10-15 mph. However, on Logan Peak, the winds are ripping from the east at speeds of 35-45 mph. Current mountain temperatures range from 7-15 °F.
Overnight, the Logan mountains picked up roughly 1-3 inches of new snow in many areas like Tony Grove. However, the east side of the range is showing snow totals of 7-14 inches of new snow.
Our current storm is a closed low-pressure system spinning counterclockwise around the City of Salt with the eye of the storm in Wendover. This means we should see winds from the south and east direction for most of the day, with periodic snowfall that could be heavy at times (bands of snow) that could add another few inches to the storm totals. The weather remains unsettled into the weekend.
Recent Avalanches
No recent avalanche activity has been reported. Click here to submit an observation.
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Avalanche Problem #1
New Snow
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As the new snow falls the in-your-face problem will likely be dry-loose avalanches from the low-density snowfall. However, it may also be possible to trigger shallow soft slabs of wind-blown snow up to a foot deep. Depending on your terrain selection, I expect these avalanches to be small and not much of a problem.
We haven’t had many observations or field days in the Logan area. Therefore, I would proceed with caution today and make sure to dig down, perform snowpit tests, and see what you’re riding on before trusting any steep slope. In many other mountain areas, we are finding plenty of weak-faceted snow that could cause avalanches. Please submit what you find to our website to help us all out.
Video: Snowpit observation on a north-facing slope at 9,600’ in elevation from the Cottonwoods demonstrating the poor snowpack structure.