March Kicks Off Our Spring Campaign- Donate Now to Support Forecasting
Ad
The National Forest Service Logo
icon-add Observation
Forecasts
Logan Ogden Salt Lake Provo Uintas Skyline Moab Abajos Weather Archives How to read the forecast
Observations & Avalanches
Submit Observation Observations Explorer All Observations Avalanches Fatalities Weather Place Names Map Archives
Education
Avalanche Class List UAC Class List Online Classes Resources and Tutorials Avalanche Awareness Develop Skills
Events
Store
About
Contact Who we are Core Values Staff Board of Directors Past Forecasters Sponsors Annual Reports Sign In
Blog
icon-add Observation
Donate / Join

Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Sunday morning, February 23, 2020
In a sea of LOW avalanche danger, lingering wind drifts on steep upper elevation, leeward slopes may react to our additional weight and pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger exist. Making up a small portion of the terrain available to ride today, human triggered avalanches are POSSIBLE in the wind zone, especially on slopes with an easterly component to its aspect. In addition... while more the exception than the rule, avalanches breaking into deeper, buried weak layers are still possible. Usual suspect terrain includes- steep, rocky, upper elevation terrain, especially slopes exhibiting a thin, shallow snowpack and this includes repeater avalanche paths. Remember- any slide that breaks to old snow, instantly throws a curve ball at your day.
Wind sheltered mid and low elevation terrain offers generally LOW avalanche danger.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Special Announcements
The UAC's Avy Awareness Auction is currently underway with tons of great gear, jewelry, artwork and experiences available. Visit the auction page here to help support the UAC's spring avalanche awareness and outreach efforts.
Click here for more details.
And... a new version of the UAC IOS application is now available on the Apple App Store. This version fixes many of the issues that occur when running IOS 13.
Click here for more details.
Weather and Snow
Currently-
Skies are clear and temperatures in the low to mid 20's. As a storm dives through the southern half of the state, our ridgelines are experiencing northeast winds which bumped into the 20's and 30's right around midnight. Recent winds have wrecked a lot of our high alpine terrain, but on a go-anywhere base, if you seek out mid elevation, wind sheltered slopes, and you'll be rewarded with soft, creamy snow.
Uinta weather network info is found here. Simply click on the Western Uinta tab.
For today-
Look for mostly sunny skies for the majority of the day with high temperatures climbing into the mid 30's. Northeast winds blow in the 20's and 30's, but then shift to the northwest late tonight and crank into the 50's and 60's.
Futurecast-
A quick hitting cold front crosses northern Utah early Monday, bringing strong winds to exposed ridgelines. Snow accumulations are expected to remain light as most of the energy slides east of the region.
Recent Avalanches
Avy pro, guide, and instructor extraordinaire Dave Kikkert was out looking at snow and triggered the piece of snow in the image above. Dave noted... "Most slopes are trending toward stability and low hazard. However, still able trigger avalanches up to about 2 feet deep in thin rocky repeater zones. Mostly pockety in nature, but deep enough to take you for a ride." Solid advice from a super savvy snow pro... yo :)
To view additional trip reports and recent avalanche activity, simply click here.
Ad
Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
More the exception than the rule, you may find a tired wind slab or two lurking on steep, wind drifted slopes above treeline. While not particularly widespread or energetic, I always have to remind myself the Uinta's are a big range. So, as I travel from one drainage to another, I definitely don't wanna get caught off guard. So... before center-punching a big slope, gather some information by tweaking small test slopes similar in aspect, elevation, and slope angle to what you wanna ride. See how they're reacting and then make fact based decisions on your terrain choices.
Avalanche Problem #2
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Another steep, east facing, repeater slide path came to life yesterday. This is the third slide breaking to weak snow this week and it's a good indicator that this avalanche dragon still exists and can react with a little provocation. And remember- tracks on the slope aren't a good barometer of snow stability.
The good news is... where the snowpack is deep, it's happy in its own skin. However, snow is a curious medium and all we need to do is find one inconsistency or a shallow zone, maybe around a rock or bush, collapse the pack, and now we've got a bigger slide than we might've bargained for. So my safe travel strategy is to think about suspect terrain I want to continue avoiding and that includes steep, rocky terrain and slopes that avalanched near the ground earlier in the season.
Additional Information
Ted stomped around Double Hill Friday and has been tracking rime crusts that formed earlier in the month, seeing if they will be an issue moving forward. These are easily found digging down a couple of feet. More on Ted's travels and insight found here.
General Announcements
The information in this forecast expires in 24 hours, but will be updated by 7:00 AM Monday Feb. 24th.
This forecast is updated daily by 7:00 AM.
In the mean-time, if you see or trigger an avalanche or just wanna let me know what you're seeing you can reach me directly at 801-231-2170
This is a great time of year to schedule one of our free avy awareness presentations.
You can email me directly [email protected]
The information in this forecast is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content.
< Previous forecast
Next forecast >