The last scheduled forecast will be Sunday, April 21st. We will issue intermittent updates with each snowfall or significant weather event through the rest of the month. We will continue posting observations.
Resorts closed for the season are now backcountry terrain - no avalanche mitigation is being done. Utah ski resorts are on a mix of private and public Forest Service land, and each resort has a different uphill policy - contact the individual resort for details.
Temperatures: Yesterday's high temperatures ranged from the low 40s to high 20s F depending on elevation. This morning at 5 a.m., temperatures are about 8 degrees warmer than yesterday morning and range from 25 to 30 degrees F.
Wind: This morning winds are blowing from the W and NW averaging 10-15 mph with gusts of 20-30 mph mainly at upper elevation ridges. However, early Tuesday morning during the storm, south winds were blowing 30 to 50 mph at many locations.
Snow: The Tuesday storm delivered 1-2 feet of dense snow (1.5-2.5 inches of water) in the Cottonwood Canyons with about 1 foot of snow along the Park City ridgeline.
Today's weather: Strong sunshine will allow mountain temperatures to easily climb into the 40s F and probably break into the low 50s F. It's hard to say for sure but clear skies should help keep the snow cool on upper elevation, northerly facing slopes today. The snow on most other slopes became wet yesterday and should have a crust on top this morning that will quickly melt. Winds will shift a little more to the north and calm a bit by afternoon.
Yesterday there were many
wet avalanches (one in
Cardiff Fork), mostly wet loose slides but a few wet slabs were spotted in upper Big Cottonwood Canyon.
There were dry avalanches in the new snow on northerly facing slopes where ski patrols triggered some dry soft slabs. A large, dry slab avalanche that occurred first thing in the morning on the south face of Mt Superior. We are unsure of the trigger but it wasn't someone skiing the slope. Skiers on Kessler peak easily triggered fast moving dry snow sluffs yesterday.
On Tuesday there were several avalanches in the new snow including
large slide was triggered in Days Fork with a ski cut, propagating much wider than expected, and entraining a lot of wet snow as it ran downhill. Other avalanches on Tuesday occurred in
Dry Fork, on the AF side of
Red Baldy,
Early morning avalanche yesterday on Mt. Superior (photo M. White).
Ski cut triggered slide in Days Fork on Tuesday, photo by JP