Forecast: Provo Area Mountains - Utah Avalanche Center

Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Issued by Dave Kelly on
Tuesday morning, January 21, 2025

With increased wind speeds and snow available for transport, there is a MODERATE avalanche danger for triggering a wind drifted snow avalanche in mid and upper elevation terrain. There is a LOW avalanche danger in low elevation terrain.

Strong winds can often load slopes on all aspects at mid and upper elevations, keep an eye out for pillowy, rounded areas of wind-drifted snow and avoid those slopes.

Low

Moderate

Considerable

High

Extreme

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Special Announcements

Join the UAC at Deer Valley on January 30th for the 2nd Annual Blizzard Ball Gala. Former Director of the Utah Avalanche Center, Bruce Tremper will deliver the keynote address.

Weather and Snow

Under clear skies trailhead temperatures are below 0 °F in many locations. Upper elevation weather stations are in the single digits °F. Winds are blowing from an easterly and southwesterly direction gusting to the teens at the lower ridgelines and from the west in the 20's gusting to the 30's at the higher ridgelines. There was no new snow overnight.

Today, look for mostly clear skies with temperatures rising to 22-30 °F. Winds will blow from the west-northwest at the higher ridgelines in the 40's gusting to the 50's and ramping up to the 80's MPH by later this afternoon. Winds at the lower ridgelines are forecast to blow from the west, however in some locations you may see winds coming directly out of the east. Read more about mountain winds HERE. There is no new snow expected today.

Even with extremely cold air temperatures some south and west facing aspects will have a slight melt freeze crust just below the surface that in most locations won't affect the sliding conditions, but is a unique occurrence, and worth noting if it still exists before our next storm.

Recent Avalanches

Yesterday, we had no reports of avalanches to the UAC from the Provo Region. Read all observations HERE.

Type

Location

Likelihood

Size

Description

Wind drifts will be easy to spot as they will be pillowy, rounded, and located on the windward side of ridgelines, gullies, and terrain features
Cornices on ridgelines are a sign that the slope below has been wind-loaded, and these cornices will be sensitive today
Cracking and collapsing in the snow are warning signs that the wind drifted snow is sensitive and would make an avalanche on slopes steeper than 30 °

Type

Location

Likelihood

Size

Description

The cracking, collapsing, and whumpfing has subsided and the lack of in-your-face weakness makes for a tricky problem. Most likely areas to trigger an avalanche 1'-3' deep and up to 100' wide are thin rocky areas, gully features, and locations that have avalanched earlier this season and have reloaded with new storm and wind-drifted snow. Any slope that matches these characteristics and receives additional wind loading today will be suspect.

The low and mid elevation terrain in the Provo Area Region is thin, it has seen less snow than its northern neighbors and weak snow is widespread, see Drew's Observation from earlier this week.

General Announcements

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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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