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Forecast for the Salt Lake Area Mountains

Trent Meisenheimer
Issued by Trent Meisenheimer on
Thursday morning, November 26, 2020
The avalanche danger is LOW, and we generally have safe avalanche conditions. However, shallow dry loose avalanches, as well as small wind drifted snow avalanches will be something to watch out for today.
LOW danger means small avalanches in isolated areas or extreme terrain. Watch for unstable snow on isolated terrain features.
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Announcement: Please visit this website with information about Responsible Winter Recreation by the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation.
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Weather and Snow
Overnight the mountains picked up 3-6" of new snow (0.10-0.25" SWE) as an upper-level trough moved into Utah. We could see an additional inch or two this morning before this trough exits the arena. Unfortunately, as this trough moves eastward, our winds veer to the northeast, and the wind speed will increase along the upper elevation terrain with speeds of 15-25 mph, gusting 45 mph. Snow will linger into the morning hours but taper off quickly in the afternoon.
Currently, winds are blowing northwest at 10-15 mph along the upper elevation terrain with the occasional 20-30 mph gust. Mountain temperatures are in the single digits to low teens °F above 8500'. I would imagine the new 3-6" of snow will greatly improve the turning and riding conditions.
Recent Avalanches
No new avalanches were reported from the backcountry yesterday.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Normal Caution
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
  • With 3-6" of new snow overnight, I would expect shallow dry loose avalanches to run fast and far in the steeper terrain. These dry loose avalanches will run on slick wind/sun crusts or Monday's low density and faceted snow.
  • I would keep an eye out for shallow drifts of windblown snow along the upper elevation ridgelines and avoid the snow that looks rounded and pillowy.
Heads up: Our adolescent snowpack has been worked over the past two weeks. Strong SW winds on the 14th of November changed the landscape to look like a scene from the moon; many slopes were scoured to the dirt, while others got a firm wind slab pressed into the terrain. Since then, we have had plenty of cold, clear nights to promote faceting (weakening) of the snowpack on the mid and upper elevation shady terrain. Not a problem today... but a good heads up of things to come when we do get a storm. We now have the weak layer, and for avalanches, we need a slab.
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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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