Forecast: Ogden Area Mountains - Utah Avalanche Center

Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Issued by Trent Meisenheimer on
Saturday morning, January 18, 2025

The avalanche danger is MODERATE on all aspects at the mid-and upper elevations where there are fresh soft slabs of wind-drifted snow.

The avalanche danger is also MODERATE On upper-elevation aspects facing northwest through north and east, where it remains possible to trigger an avalanche failing in a persistent weak layer buried 2-3 feet deep.

Low

Moderate

Considerable

High

Extreme

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Join the UAC at Deer Valley on January 30th for the 2nd Annual Blizzard Ball Gala. The night will be full of fun including delicious cuisine, live music, an auction, and presentation by Bruce Tremper.

Weather and Snow

This morning, it's snowing and favoring the mountains over by Powder Mountain. Overnight totals are trace to 6 inches of new snow with 0.01 to 0.25 inches of snow water equivalent (swe). The northwest wind continues to blow at speeds of 15-20 mph with gusts into the upper 20s. Let's not forget about the mountain temperatures; they're cold! temperatures range from 2 to 8 °F with wind chills ranging from -13 to -17 °F. Brrrrr.

Today, we should see continued light snowfall for most of the morning if the area is favored by northwest flow. Snowbasin shows a little sun already poking out. All the models I looked at show us drying out around noon. One model did keep light snowfall going into the afternoon. We should see an additional 1 to 5 inches of new snow throughout the day, bringing totals to 1-10 inches of low-density snow. The northwest wind will stay elevated throughout the day with speeds of 15-20 mph. Temperatures will remain cold, topping out at 11-16 °F. Stay warm.

Recent Avalanches

No new human-triggered avalanches were reported yesterday.

Observations and Avalanches

Type

Location

Likelihood

Size

Description

Yesterday, the northwest wind picked up around 10:00 am, averaging 15-25 mph with gusts into the 20s and 30s throughout the day and night. This morning the wind is still elevated and will remain elevated throughout the day. Because of this, I would expect sensitive drifts of wind blown snow across all mid- and upper elevations. These avalanches will be soft slabs of wind-drifted snow that could be extra sensitive because they either formed over a slick sun crust (sunny side) or our weak and faceted snow surface (shady side). These avalanches could 6 to 12 inches deep and could be large enough to bury a person.

Yesterday I went to the North Ogden Divide towards Lewis Peak and found shallow sensitive slabs of wind-drifted snow (video below).

Type

Location

Likelihood

Size

Description

There exists a buried layer of faceted snow 2-4 feet deep at the mid and upper elevations on aspects facing northwest through east. The last avalanche reported on this layer occurred before the New Year and this problem is trending toward dormancy.

You are most likely going to trigger an avalanche failing on this persistent weak layer in steep, rocky terrain where there is a thin and shallow snowpack.

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

Observations and Avalanches

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