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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Tuesday morning, March 24, 2015

In mid and upper elevation terrain you'll find a MODERATE avalanche danger and human triggered slides are possible on steep, wind drifted terrain, especially on slopes with an easterly component to their aspect. Once triggered, todays avalanches may break deeper and wider than you might expect and with all the slick crusts to run on they'll be packing some heat.

Most other terrain offers a LOW avalanche danger.

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Weather and Snow

Skies are clear this morning in the wake of a nice little storm that delivered 6" of medium density snow to the eastern front. Winds have been all over the place, but this morning they're west and northwest, blowing 25-40 mph along the ridges. It'll feel like winter with temperatures in the teens and low 20's. Riding and turning conditions vastly improved in the past 24 hours and low angle slopes will be the ticket to avoid bottoming out on the old, hard, preexisting snow surfaces.

Click here for real-time temperatures, snowfall, and winds.

Recent Avalanches

No new avalanche activity to report.

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Avalanche Problem #1
Persistent Weak Layer
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

Today's main avalanche problem are the fresh drifts recent winds whipped up along the leeward side of upper elevation ridges. Yesterday, southwest winds cranked 30-50 mph til just about sunset, then switched to the west and northwest, dying down a bit, but still pretty burly in the 30's and 40's. These wind speeds along with plenty of snow to blow around are the perfect slab building combo. It's not a total no-brainer out there today as winds have been all over the compass, though primarily loading slopes with an easterly component to their aspect. Not only will you find fresh slabs sensitive to your additional weight near the ridges, but also around terrain features like chutes, gullies, and sub-ridges. Today you'll want to look for and avoid any fat looking rounded piece of snow, especially if it sounds hollow like a drum.

Additional Information

A break in the action this morning with sunny skies and temperatures rising into the low 30's. Clouds and westerly winds increase throughout the day and it'll be blowing in the 40's and 50's as another wave of moisture slides through the region late in the day. We can expect an additional 3"-6" of snow overnight with temperatures dipping into the teens. Winds die down for Wednesday and we dry out as high pressure builds. A warming trend is on tap for the latter half of the week.

General Announcements

Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting snow and avalanche conditions. You can call me directly at 801-231-2170, email [email protected], or email by clicking HERE

This is a great time of year to schedule a free avalanche awareness presentation for your group or club. You can contact me at 801-231-2170 or email [email protected]

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The information in this advisory is from the US Forest Service which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

I will update this advisory by 7:00 AM Wednesday Mar. 25, 2015 or sooner if conditions warrant.

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