Save the Date | Saturday, December 7 | 17th Annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW) | Information and tickets are available
here.
Nowcast
Calm winds with a few scattered clouds have held on throughout the majority of the day. Ahead of the incoming storm, temperatures sit warm at 40 F at 10,000’, and closer to 50 F at many of the Uinta trailheads.
Forecast
Temperatures stay mild heading into the early portion of the weekend with averages around 30F.
Southwest winds increase early Saturday morning, gusting into the 40’s by day's end, ahead of a significant winter storm that arrives around sunset.
Futurecast
The storm has two main waves to look for. The first impulse gets going in full swing on Sunday and I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll stack up 7”-12” of snow, with up to 1” of SWE for Monday morning’s commute. A quick lull in the action is followed by the next system ramping up early Tuesday morning, with periods of heavy snowfall continuing Tuesday night into Wednesday.
Snowpack and Travel
Moving around the Duchesne Ridge area today, I made note of varying snow depths and snow surfaces. Total snow depths ranged from 20-60cm (10-24”) and were supportable in areas where the pack is deepest, but felt sugary and weak where it was shallow. A crust developed on solar aspects this past week, while on the shady aspects, the snowpack continued to weaken and facet with cold, clear nights and mild days. Ted was near the north slope and noticed the snowpack lacking a slab and becoming very weak from top to bottom. See
here for more about his observation or click
here for all observations!
Where I was on the south half of the range, you can see the structure is similar, weak overall.
No significant avalanche activity has been reported from the Western Uinta Mountains since Friday, November 15th, 2024.
