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Observation: Days Fork

Observation Date
2/16/2024
Observer Name
Grainger, Young, Olafsen
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork
Location Name or Route
Days Fork
Weather
Precipitation
Moderate Snowfall
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Light to moderate PI throughout the mid day, transitioning to small-grained graupel around noon. 4-5" of new snow by the afternoon that held a slight density inversion that was reactive but no hazard. Gusty winds are building soft windslabs right on ridgetops and high exposed terrain features but few issues were observed lower. Luckily there are forecasted decreasing winds in the 24 hr period.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Comments
Overall yesterday's higher-density snow and today's new layer have bonded reasonably to this last week's surface in a lot of terrain, despite the underlying low-density stellars that failed in the yesterday's natural cycle (more pronounced in terrain to our north, hearing from avalanche professionals in the ogden area).
We found the outlier to this on solar aspects where the M/F crust served as a bed surface with the stellars the weak interface. The photo is a small slab (SS-ASi-R1-D1) 14" deep and ~45' wide on a SE aspect at 8500' elevation. Interesting to see if this problem is accentuated on southerly aspects as the sun comes out tomorrow.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates