We've continued a Special Avalanche Advisory through the evening Monday, February 15th. Recent new snow over the last few days has covered up some very weak snow formed earlier in the week which has produced widespread avalanche activity. This weakness is expected to be active again today with human triggered avalanches likely on slopes approaching 30 degrees and steeper.

Overall, there's a CONSIDERABLE (3) danger in the backcountry. Some natural avalanches are possible today with snowfall, mild temperatures, and westerly winds forecast, and easily triggered avalanches 1 to 3 feet deep are likely on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees. There are pockets with a HIGH (4) danger on steep upper elevation slopes with significant deposits of recently accumulated or wind drifted snow. In some areas, where weak snow still plagues the basal layers of the snowpack, you could trigger a very dangerous deep slab avalanche. The next "our worst nightmare" kind of avalanche will most likely be triggered from a generally shallow area. A smaller avalanche overrunning a slope with weak snow structure could cause a much larger and more destructive avalanche... You could trigger avalanches remotely, from a good distance, or from below.....

Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route-finding and conservative decision-making are essential for safe backcountry travel today. Avoid travel on or under steep slopes and obvious or historic avalanche paths.

Its snowing in the mountains this morning. The Tony Grove Snotel at 8400' already reports a couple inches of new snow and now over 2.5 inches of water capping an active surface hoar or frost layer formed earlier in the week and preserved by light density snowfall on Wednesday. There's now 76" of total snow on the ground containing 70% of average water for the date. Its a balmy 21 degrees at the 9700' Campbell Scientific--Logan Peak weather station, and the wind is out of the west, averaging around 12 mph.

We've had a very active weekend locally with numerous natural and easily or remote triggered avalanches reported across the forecast zone....By far the vast majority of these avalanches involved the newest layer of snow picked up since a nice layer of surface hoar was covered and preserved by light snow on Wednesday 2-10-10.

Here's an updated local backcountry avalanche list:

Winds are moderate out of the west this morning and it is snowing in the mountains...Mountain temperatures should stay fairly constant in the mid twenties today. Expect a break in the the somewhat moist northwest flow and fairer weather tomorrow before the next wave of storminess around Wednesday night.

I will be issuing morning avalanche advisories for the Logan area on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

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Send us your avalanche and snow observations. You can also call me at 435-757-7578 or the SLC office at 800-662-4140, or email to uac@utahavalanchecenter.org

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

I will update this forecast Wednesday morning. Thanks for checking in....