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Forecast for the Provo Area Mountains

Drew Hardesty
Issued by Drew Hardesty on
Monday morning, November 25, 2024
The primary hazard in the Provo mountains is hitting buried rocks, stumps, and deadfall.
As always, risk is inherent in mountain travel and isolated avalanche concerns of loose snow sluffs and isolated soft slabs of wind blown snow may be encountered. Normal Caution is advised.
***HEADS UP - With this next winter storm, we do expect dangerous avalanche conditions to develop over the next several days and well into Thanksgiving.***
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The 17th Annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW) is scheduled for Saturday December 7th - Information and tickets available here.
Weather and Snow
Skies are mostly clear with temps in the upper teens to low 20s. Winds are generally light from the south. There is only about 6-18" of snow on the ground and low tide conditions exist. Nikki Champion and I went to the UFO Bowls on Friday and our observation is HERE.
That said, the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for tonight through Wednesday that should provide 12-20" of snow. Initial snow/rain line is expected to be around 6500' and dropping after Tuesday eve's cold front.
For today, we'll have increasing clouds, temps warming to the low to mid-30s, and increasing winds from the south.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Normal Caution
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
We have very little information about the higher elevations in the Provo area mountains, but we do know that very weak cohesionless snow exists in the steep shady terrain. If you encounter shooting cracks or hear audible collapsing, it's time to turn around. Dig down on any slope you intend to travel on to see if there is a slab of new or wind loaded snow with soft weak snow underneath before committing to ascend or descend a slope over 30° degrees.
Some avalanche problems you may want to keep on your radar:
  • New Snow - The new snow may not bond well to the different crusts and weak faceted snow in our shallow snowpack. There will be a potential for sluffing and even shallow soft slabs of storm snow.
  • Wind-Drifted Snow - Blowing winds from the past 48 hours caused snow to drift at the upper elevations. Watch for signs such as cracking in fresh drifts of wind-blown snow. Although these drifts should be small, you will want to avoid getting caught in one in steep, consequential terrain. These drifts could fail on weak faceted snow.
General Announcements
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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