UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Trent Meisenheimer
Issued by Trent Meisenheimer on
Friday morning, November 24, 2023
Update for Friday, November 24 at 7:30 AM
Today, we can 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
It’s snowing, and mountain temperatures resemble what winter should feel like. Winds are blowing east and northeast at speeds of 25-30 mph across the Ogden Skyline. Current mountain temperatures range from 10-21 °F. Overnight, the mountains picked up roughly 1-3 inches of new snow containing 0.08-0.12 inches of water across the range.
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 light winds from the southerly 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. However, the winds currently are blowing pretty strongly across the ridge tops in the Ogden area. Mountain temperature will climb into the mid to low 20s °F before dropping into the teens °F overnight.
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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Location
Likelihood
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Description
As the new snow falls straight out of the sky, 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 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 Ogden 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.