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Forecast for the Ogden Area Mountains

Evelyn Lees
Issued by Evelyn Lees on
Tuesday morning, March 20, 2018

The avalanche danger is MODERATE – human triggered avalanches are possible, so evaluate the snow and your choice of terrain carefully. These are the avalanche problems:

Persistent slab avalanches can be triggered in isolated areas – steep slopes facing northwest through easterly with a shallower snowpack at the mid and upper elevations are the most suspect.

Wet loose sluffs: if the clouds remain thin or skies clear where you are, the danger of wet sluffs will increase to MODERATE today on almost all aspects and elevations.

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Weather and Snow

It’s the Spring Equinox, with the day and night the same length. Skies are partly cloudy in the Ogden area mountains this morning and temperatures dropped into the twenties at most mountains stations, with a few teens on the highest peaks. Winds have shifted to the southwest and are light – averaging 5 to 10 mph at the mid elevations and only 20 mph on Mt Ogden. Clouds moved in over yesterday’s sun fairly early in the Ogden area mountains, preserving much of the dry snow, with reports of good to excellent riding conditions.

Recent Avalanches

No new backcountry observations from the Ogden area mountains. Avalanche mitigation work at the Ogden area resorts resulted in a few cornices releasing with ski cuts, and a few wet loose sluffs yesterday morning on steep, sunny slopes.

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

With all the new snow this past week, it is still possible to trigger a persistent avalanche breaking on a weak facet layer in the snowpack. A persistent slab avalanche could be triggered by a person or a smaller slide - especially avoid steep, complex terrain with sharp break overs, rocks or cliffs and shallow snowpack areas, such as slopes that have already slid one or more times this year. Always be aware of the consequences should you be caught in a slide - long steep slopes, trees and gullies in your path are bad news.

Avalanche Problem #2
Wet Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description

With mostly cloudly skies yesterday keeping the snow cool, today may be the bigger heating day in the Ogden area mountains.

With today’s mix of mid to high level clouds, periods of sun and light winds, the snow on some slopes will heat up enough for wet loose sluffs, while other slopes will stay cool. Constantly evaluate the surface snow where you travel – if the snow becomes wet and sloppy or you’re easily triggering roller balls – it’s time to move to a cooler aspect or low angle terrain. Periods of high thin clouds can heat the snow on the shady slopes (commonly called green housing). Once wet sluffs get moving, they can entrain snow as they move down slope, piling snow up deeper than expected, especially in terrain traps like gullies and creek beds.

Additional Information

We’ll have warm temperatures for the first day of spring – reaching near 30 at along the ridge lines, and near 40 at the mid and lower elevations. Skies will be partly cloudy, and the southwesterly winds should remain light all day, 5 to 15 mph at the mid elevations, with the high peaks averaging around 20 mph.

While the timing of the next storm has slowed, models are still anticipating a warm rain event, now starting on Thursday, with the heaviest rain/snow on Friday. The rain/snow line could be as high as 9,000’. Much colder air arrives Saturday, with periods of light snow for the weekend, and the snow line eventually dropping near the valley floors.

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This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

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