Provo Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Evelyn Lees

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

With our budget as thin as our snowpack and the avalanche danger forecast to remain LOW for a number of days we are dropping a few forecasts this week and bank the days for late in the season.

In the meantime you can show your support by purchasing UAC hardgoods (great xmas gifts!!) through our Online Store from the main menu above. We offer free shipping on everything.


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 is generally LOW, but triggering a sluff large enough to knock you off balance in steep terrain is possible. Approach steep, upper elevation slopes with caution - the Pockets of Moderate are for the possibility of finding a steep slope with more than a few inches of new snow, drifted in by the wind. Here, the surface snow will be very sensitive, and sluffs could be surprising large, sensitive and long running. As always, think about consequences – if a loose snow sluff threw you off balance, could it send you off a cliff or into trees and rocks?


CURRENT CONDITIONS

It’s snowing! While the snowfall amounts at most locations are only a trace of a trace, a few locations are pushing 2 inches as of 6:30 am, including the upper Cottonwoods and the Park City side. The weak storm struggling northward is just reaching the Ogden areas mountains as I type. It’s interesting to look at the National Weather Service radar this morning, as the storm is moving on an unusual southeasterly flow. Temperatures this morning are in the upper teens to mid twenties, and the southeasterly winds are light, averaging less than 15 mph, with gusts occasionally to 25 mph.

Turning and riding in the “top to bottom” facets that exist on almost all aspects and elevations remains challenging, as you sink into the snow pack, and hitting rocks and stumps continues to be common.


RECENT ACTIVITY

No avalanche activity was reported from the backcountry yesterday.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
No trend identified.

Increased sluffing is the number one concern today. Our snow surface is a very fragile mix of near surface facets and surface hoar (check out Doug’s great video of surface hoar growth in the Ogden Valley HERE), and even a few inches of new snow will make these sluffs surprisingly larger and more sensitive. Be particularly alert along the higher ridge lines if the southeasterly winds have drifted a bit of snow onto the northerly facing slopes.

In continuously steep terrain, they have to potential to pick up speed and mass. While there are only isolated places where they might have enough volume to bury a person – most likely in a terrain trap such as a gully – there are steep slopes where they will have enough force to knock you off balance, and then push you over rocks or into a tree. Even a short rice would involve bumping along the rocky ground.

Of future concern, even these few inches of snow are burying and helping to preserve a variety of our surface weak layers, including surface hoar and radiation recrystallization crusts.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

Light snow could continue on and off today, and perhaps even into tonight, on a southeasterly flow. Totals shouldn’t add up to more than an inch or two, though. Temperatures will remain fairly static, only warming a few degrees, into the mid to upper 20s at 8,000’ and the mid teens at 10,000’. Winds will remain from the southeasterly direction, generally in the 10 to 15 mph range, with hourly averages occasionally reaching 20 mph with gusts to 30 along the highest ridges. Skies will become partly cloudy tonight, with a few snow flurries possible, and temperatures cooling as the light flow switches to the northwest.

We’ve got out eyes pinned hopefully on the Thursday night/Friday storm, but it is not a sure bet at all, with computer model disagreement continuing, and several steering the storm away from Utah.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Salt Lake – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)

Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8.

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

Subscribe to the daily avalanche advisory e-mail click HERE.

UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

You have the opportunity to participate in the creation of our own community avalanche advisory by submitting avalanche and snow observations. You can also call us at 801-524-5304 or 800-662-4140, or email by clicking HERE

Donate to your favorite non-profit – The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our work.

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.

We will update this forecast tomorrow morning. Thanks for calling.


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.