West winds howled along the ridges overnight, drifting the shallow new snow at upper elevations and creating heightened avalanche conditions. The Tony Grove Snotel reports an angry one inch of new snow overnight with .3" SWE (Snow Water Equivalent). There's 34"of total snow, containing 88% of average SWE for the date. Temperatures are dropping this morning at 8400', and it's currently 25º F. West winds picked up in the evening at the CSI Logan Peak weather station and sustained 25 to 30 mph speeds all night. I'm currently reading 30 mph northwest winds with gusts in the 50s. It's 20º F at 9700'.
You can find good access and pretty good coverage for this time of year, but the snow is still just a bit too shallow to ride in steep terrain or to get aggressive with your throttle.
A fast moving weather disturbance will impact the region today. Strong high pressure aloft over the region Thursday will be replaced by a series of weather disturbances moving east through the area beginning Friday. We'll see a bit of snow in the mountains today, with cloudy skies and temperatures at 8500' around 26º F and 21 to 31 mph west wind, gusting around 45 mph. It'll be partly cloudy tonight, low temperature around 15º F, and decreasing southwest wind, 7 to 12 mph after midnight. Tomorrow will be sunny with a chance of snow showers, high temperature near 36º F, and 11 to 17 mph south-southwest wind.
There was some natural avalanche activity due to wind drifted snow on steep upper elevation slopes in the central Bear River Range during the intense storm last Wednesday, 12/12/18