The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the entire region through Sunday evening.

Expect heavy snowfall and strong winds, especially in the mountains.  With this, the Avalanche Danger in the backcountry is rising significantly.......

There's a CONSIDERABLE danger on steep upper elevation slopes in the backcountry. Continuing heavy snowfall and strong westerly winds will cause avalanches to be more likely and larger, and the danger to be more widespread as snow piles up and overloads weak preexisting layers.   This storm will cause dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountains.  Use conservative decision making, careful route finding, and good travel habits.  Training and experience are essential....

Serious winter weather is here, and the game is on.....

Even before the arrival of the front, as of 5:00 this morning, the Tony Grove Snotel recorded 7 inches of snow accumulation containing 7/10ths of an inch of water.  Expect mountain snowfall rates in the four-inch-an-hour range with frontal passage, dropping to one to two-inches-an-hour later on in the day.

Strong southwest winds are drifting tons of snow at upper elevations. The Campbell Scientific weather station on Logan Peak is recording average wind speeds in the upper 30s (mph) with a recent 76 mph gust. It's currently 19 degrees at 9400' and temperatures are forecast to drop today.........

The leading edge of the front is just now nosing into the Cache Valley Area, and it's snowing heavily in Logan as I write.  Snow will continue to fall heavily today, and westerly winds will remain fairly strong in the mountains as they gradually switch to the northwest.   Snowfall will become more terrain limited tonight and tomorrow, but the weather will remain unsettled and productive well into next week.

The major access to upper elevation snow is via the Tony Grove Road, which is not maintained for wheeled vehicles in the winter.  It is however, heavily used by different wintertime user groups, and this time of year patience and restrained speeds in congested areas are important safety concerns....

If you have observations from the backcountry, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche, please let us know.  You can leave a message at (435) 755-3638 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

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The information in this advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.  This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.