This avalanche warning is for the mountains of northern and central Utah effective from noon today through Thursday. Strong winds and heavy snowfall today and tonight will increase the avalanche danger… first in the mountains north of I-80 as of noon today. The danger will rise to HIGH in the mountains south of I-80…the western Uintas and the central Utah mountains tonight through Thursday. Dangerous backcountry avalanche conditions are developing and will remain elevated through Thursday.

Strong winds today, with heavy snowfall and intense winds this evening and tonight, are creating an increasingly dangerous avalanche danger. The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE this morning on all mid and upper elevation steep, wind drifted slopes. The danger will rise to HIGH later this afternoon or tonight, with frontal passage, when the strongest winds and heaviest snowfall will occur.

Once again, as the storm intensifies, avoid all steep slopes, especially if they are recently wind drifted. Also avoid travel below steep slopes, as natural avalanches could occur, especially overnight, and be triggered remotely from below.

Wind sheltered, low angle slopes that are not connected to or beneath steep slopes provide the safer terrain today.

The winds are crashing yesterday’s powder party. They are blowing from the southwest, and have already ramped up into the 15 to 25 mph range, with gusts to 40 mph, with some of the high peaks are averaging 45 with gusts into the 50s. Temperatures have warmed slightly, with most stations in the mid teens to mid twenties. Yesterday’s storm totals were 9 to 16 inches in the Salt Lake, Park City and Provo area mountains, with 3 to 6” in the Ogden area mountains.

Most backcountry parties near any steep terrain triggered sensitive new snow soft slabs yesterday, some remotely, averaging 100-200' wide, on aspects including southeast, east and northerly. Two slides broke out 2 ½ feet deep, on north and northwest facing slopes, probably into older snow - Davenport in Silver Fork at 10,000' and in Summit Park, 7,700'. In south Monitor bowl, a slide was triggered remotely on a SE facing slope that probably involved one of the facet/crust layers.

A Pacific storm is bearing down, with frontal passage forecast to reach northern Utah this afternoon or early evening. Strong southerly winds ahead of the storm will continue today, accompanied by 3 to 6 inches of snow. Winds will shift to west with the front and then northwest, remaining strong into early Thursday. The storm will intensify late this afternoon or early this evening around frontal passage, with several hours of heavy snowfall, and a total of 8 to 12 inches tonight.

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 and Park City – 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.

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Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

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Wasatch Powderbird Guides does daily updates about where they'll be operating on this blog http://powderbird.blogspot.com/ .

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