Forecast: Provo Area Mountains - Utah Avalanche Center

Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Issued by Drew Hardesty on
Monday morning, March 9, 2020

A MODERATE DANGER exists for soft slabs of wind drifted snow at the mid and upper elevations. These drifts will be more prominent on steep northwest to northeast to southeast facing slopes. Wet avalanches remain possible at the lower elevations, with the danger rising if the sun pokes through for any periods of time today.

Low

Moderate

Considerable

High

Extreme

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If you are in the Salt Lake Area - Join The Utah Avalanche Center at Backcountry HQ on March 12th as Craig Gordon leads an interactive discussion on current Wasatch snowpack conditions, a recap of this season’s close calls and accidents, how to stay on the right side of the fracture line, and predictions for the rest of the season. Space is limited, registration is required. Register HERE.

Weather and Snow

Skies are mostly cloudy with mountain temps in the upper 20s to low 30s. Winds backed to the southwest overnight and are blowing 20-25mph with gusts to 35. Storm totals are 6-8" of high density snow and snow depths are roughly 50-70" in the mid and upper elevations. Riding conditions are vastly improved at the mid and upper elevations, but remain damp and soggy down low. My field work was in the south fork of Provo canyon yesterday and a full report can be found HERE.

For today, expect mostly cloudy skies with temps in the upper 20s up high, the upper 30s down low. Winds will be from the southwest blowing 20-25mph.

Recent Avalanches

While we found mostly stable conditions with the storm snow yesterday, we were able to initiate wet push-alanches that gouged into the weak unconsolidated grains in the lower elevations.

Significant wet avalanche activity has been observed in the Provo area mountains the last couple days. Below is a photo of the avalanche seen in Santaquin Canyon from Saturday - see the full observation HERE. (Photo: Pete W)

Type

Location

Likelihood

Size

Description

Newly developed wind drifts may be triggered in the mid and upper elevations and most prominent on steep northwest to northeast to southeast facing slopes. These drifts should be reactive to cornice drops and ski cuts but best left alone and avoided. Look for the smooth and rounded, scalloped appearance of any wind drifts. These should become more stubborn as the day wears on.

Side Note: some areas received a fair bit of graupel with the storm. This graupel can bounce downhill and pool beneath cliffbands or at significant slope angle transitions (from very steep to moderate) and remain sensitive to provocation briefly after a storm.

Type

Location

Likelihood

Size

Description

Wet avalanches are often challenging to forecast. I suspect that any refreeze of the wet snow down low will be superficial at best and wet avalanches may again be possible with daytime warming. Also..if the sun comes out and/or "greenhousing" occurs, wet sluffs will be likely in the affected terrain. It'll be key to watch how the snow changes with any change in the weather.

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

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