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Forecast for the Salt Lake Area Mountains

Trent Meisenheimer
Issued by Trent Meisenheimer on
Wednesday morning, December 9, 2020
Today, the overall avalanche danger is LOW on all aspects and elevations. This means that human-triggered avalanches are unlikely, but small avalanches in isolated areas are possible.
With the increase in Southwest winds, keep an eye out for any wind drifted snow, as it won't take a lot of drifting snow to create a small wind slab in the upper elevation terrain.
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Special Announcements
This week is the 2nd Annual Avalanche Awareness Week. We will be hosting avalanche awareness and education events across the state of Utah. Get a full schedule of events here.
The holiday season is right around the corner!! Looking for that special something for your partner? or yourself?
Well, we've got an easy shopping solution for you...Buy your gifts at our Pray for Snow online auction.
Weather and Snow
Under clear skies, the mountain temperatures at 11,000' are 38°F, while temperatures at 7,400' are 17°F. West southwest winds have increased in the past few hours and will usher in partly cloudy skies throughout the day. Current wind speeds are 15-20 mph at the upper elevations, while mid and low elevation winds are less than 10 mph.
Looking ahead, we have a small storm that will impact Utah starting Friday morning; this will be a welcome change to our current weather pattern and hopefully will bring 2-6" of new snow by Saturday afternoon. The good news, we should be done with the high pressure for the next couple of weeks, and temperatures will finally feel like it's December. We do have an optimistic precipitation forecast from the GFS over the next two weeks, as seen below.
Recent Avalanches
No new avalanches were reported from the backcountry. We want to share some of our internal dialogue from a couple of nights ago - Mapping the Weak Layers - A Look Behind the Curtain.
Please keep these excellent observations coming - they help us map the locations of the weak faceted snow. This will be critical ahead of the next winter storms.
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Avalanche Problem #1
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Yesterday, I spent my field day mapping faceted snow (weak layers) on many different aspects and elevations. Basically, to sum it all up; WE HAVE WEAK FACETED SNOW on all aspects at the mid and upper elevations. Now, due south-facing slopes are lacking faceted snow for the most part. However, if you turn just slightly east or west, the snowpack becomes faceted. If you find a shade line or a shaded pocket on a south-facing slope, it's faceted and weak.
This means; once we bury the current snow surface, it will be tough to tell what southerly terrain had bare dirt vs. slopes with a patchy snowpack. Usually, southerly facing terrain is not an issue with this type of weak layer. However, this setup is tricky because the only aspect that doesn't have a weak layer is very narrow, and the slightest mistake in aspect would likely lead to an avalanche.
My strategy will be riding slopes less than 30° in steepness once we get a storm on top of this weak snow... There is no doubt we will have an avalanche cycle in the near future once we load this weak faceted snow with stronger heavy snow on top.
General Announcements
Please visit this website with information about Responsible Winter Recreation by the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE GENERAL INFO AND FAQ
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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