Pockets of CONSIDERABLE danger exists for human triggered soft slabs primarily in the upper elevation north through east facing wind affected areas. The steepest slopes will be prone to human initiated sluffing in the low density snow. Caution is advised for the powder starved as we teeter on the edge of the house of cards we call our pre-existing snowpack. Those without good avalanche skills should avoid the mid to upper shady terrain.

With the center of the storm moving to the east, cold, moist, unstable air fills in the wake. Most of the range has already picked up an additional 4-6”, and storm totals now sit at about 6-10” in the Cottonwoods, and the Ogden and Park City mountains. Provo canyon provided the arena for the perfect storm of colliding warm and cold air masses, and they literally watched 16” of snow fall before their very eyes. Totals in this microclimate now add up to nearly 2’ and 1.5” of snow-water-equivalent.

Colder air from the northwest has pushed the thermometers down into the single digits and below. The winds, while gusting into the 30’s yesterday, are now mercifully light from the west and northwest.

Those poking into the upper elevation lee terrain found sensitive, shallow wind drifts driven by the stronger southwesterly winds. They ranged from 3-8” deep and 20’ wide. One skier took a short ride, but escaped unharmed. The outlier, along the eastern portion of the Park City ridgeline, may be a portent of things to come. A skier triggered a sluff that gouged 1 to 1.5’ deep and 60’ onto the old facet/basal crust interface. It was on a northeast facing slope at 9000’.

With it snowing 1, 2, 3 and 4 inches per hour in Provo Canyon, numerous heretofore grassy slopes sluffed naturally on slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Poor visibility limited the observations of anything higher along the crests of Timpanogos and the Cascade ridgeline.

Check the current conditions page for recent observations in the Provo mountains.

We can expect continued light snowfall with some chance of lake-enhancement this afternoon. 4-8” additional inches may be expected, with more in favored areas. The west to northwest winds are expected to remain less than about 15mph as temperatures spiral down below zero. We’ll get a bit of a break mid-week with moist westerlies on the way for Friday into the weekend.

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We will update this forecast Wednesday morning. And thanks for calling.