Ogden Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Bruce Tremper

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

We will be issuing intermittent avalanche advisories for the rest of the season.

BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)


Danger Rose Tutorial

The avalanche danger will depend on how much sun and clouds we get on Friday, so it’s your responsibility to monitor the conditions carefully. Most likely we will have a MODERATE danger of both wet sluffs, especially in the heat of the afternoon.

This weekend, the danger of wet sluffs and slabs will likely rise to CONSIDERABLE each afternoon.

CURRENT CONDITIONS

Storm totals since Tuesday are over 3 feet of dense snow in the upper elevations of the Cottonwood Canyons and Park City with 3-4 inches of water weight. The storm was quite warm, so new snow amounts were very elevation dependent. For instance, places like Snowbasin, which is 2000 feet lower than the Cottonwood Canyon resorts, had the same water amounts but only 10 inches of snow.

RECENT ACTIVITY

After widespread natural and human triggered avalanche activity within the new snow on Wednesday, it settled out quite a bit overnight, as is common with dense, warm snow. Avalanche control for the Cottonwood Canyon produced mostly shallow wind slabs in upper elevation wind exposed terrain with explosives, but there were a few larger slides 2 feet deep and close to 200 feet wide. In the clearing today, we could see some larger natural avalanches that occurred probably on Wednesday. Two notable ones were on the north facing slopes beneath the Pfeifferhorn and also on Red Baldy. These look to be over 2 feet deep and quite wide. There were also some cornice breaks today, both natural and human triggered.

Photos of activity from Wednesday

THREAT #1
WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 8 hours.

Skies should begin to clear on Friday, so I’m thinking that our biggest problem will be damp and wet sluffs as all this new snow heats up in the strong spring sun. Most of the problems will likely occur on the steep, south facing slopes but they could occur on east and west facing slopes as well. I’m hoping that the wet activity will be fairly well-behaved since it’s warming up slowly, we're expecting some mountain-level stratus clouds today and the existing snow is quite dense already. In addition, the lower elevation snow has remained very wet after the good soaking by rain during the storm, so I'm still suspicious. Be sure to monitor the conditions carefully as you travel. Get off of and out from underneath steep slopes when they begin to get wet and soggy. You should avoid avalanche terrain in the afternoon.

For the weekend: we're expecting warm and sunny weather so wet avalanche conditions will likely rise dramatically each afternoon. As usual, get out early and get home early.

MOUNTAIN WEATHER

The closed low pressure system is centered in southern Utah and should slowly move eastward. As the moist, unstable air rotates counterclockwise around it, some more moisture should wrap around and come into us from the north and northeast giving us a few mountaintop, stratus clouds today. Friday’s high should be in the mid 30’s and in the mid 40’s down at 8,000’. This weekend, we have a strong, high pressure moving in for the next week. The ridge top highs should rise to 40 with close to 50 down at 8,000'.

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

We will be issuing intermittent avalanche advisories for the rest of the season. We will likely issue advisories each afternoon this week through the storm cycle, and then go back to more intermittent advisories as the avalanche conditions stabilize.

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UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

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We appreciate any and all late season avalanche and snow observations, so keep them coming!! Please leave us a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

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 advisory on Friday afternoon.

This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done.  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.

This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.