Yesterday's storm system over delivered with storm totals in the upper Cottonwoods between 10-15"(.75-1.51" SWE) and 5-7"(.60 SWE) along the Park City ridgeline. Northwesterly winds stayed elevated all day averaging in the mid-teens and gusting into the 30s mph at ridgetops. The uppermost elevations, above 11,000' feet, saw consistent gusts above 70 mph until 9:00 PM last night.
This morning, mountain temperatures are in the low 20s F at trailheads and mid-teens F at ridgetops. Winds are currently still northwesterly averaging in the single digits to low teens with gusts up to 20 mph.
Today, another disturbance will move through the area bringing temperatures in the mid-30s and another 4-7 inches of snow late this afternoon into early Wednesday morning. Winds will be westerly average 10-25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph at the highest ridgelines.
Looking down the road, weekend ridgetop temperatures may reach into the mid-40s F! The heatwave should be brief; however, the models do bring a strong cold front on Monday.
Yesterday multiple new avalanches were reported in the backcountry, most of these avalanches were soft slabs of new snow or wind drifted snow which failed on the new snow, old snow interface between 4"-12" inches deep. These avalanches were reported on North, East, and South mid and upper elevation aspects. While the exact time occurrence for all of these avalanches is unknown, most were reported to be rider triggered and few could have been natural during the highest snowfall rates overnight.
Heat map representation of yesterday's activity (note the low elevation north avalanche was the wet slab as reported by Grainger).
A great example of the avalanches seen yesterday from S. Monitor Bowl, a skier triggered an avalanche on a northeast aspect that failed 12" deep was 100 feet wide and ran 400 feet. See full observation
HERE. (Photos: M. White)
One outlier avalanche reported was a
wet slab avalanche that occurred on Mount Olympus likely during the very early morning hours of Monday when warm precipitation had saturated the entirety of snow stuck to the steep rock slabs and released fully. This avalanche was 400 feet wide on a north aspect, at 7,500 feet, and ran for 500 feet. You can find the full observation
HERE.
Ski areas reported both sensitive soft slabs, and surprising large wind drifts of snow which were large enough to bury a person. In both the resorts and the backcountry these avalanches are running long and fast on a variety of old bed surfaces.
