Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Provo Area Mountains Issued by Drew Hardesty for Thursday - March 29, 2018 - 7:17am
bottom line

A MODERATE danger exists for wind drifts primarily but not limited to the upper elevations. Watch for cross-loading on many aspects. A MODERATE danger still exists for triggering a deep slab avalanche 2-4' deep in the highest elevations. Avoid the steep sunny aspects by midday and afternoon as they may become wet and unstable.
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current conditions

Skies are partly cloudy with temps in the upper 20s to low 30s. Winds are from the northwest, blowing 15-20 with gusts to 30. I was down in the Provo mountains on Saturday and my report is below. Slide for life conditions exist on steep terrain.

03/24/2018 Observation: UFO Bowls Provo region Hardesty, Wilson
recent activity

No new avalanches were reported yesterday.

Recent Provo avalanche observations:

03/23/2018 Avalanche: Slide Canyon Provo region Woody

03/22/2018 Avalanche: Cascade Cirque Provo region Woody
Avalanche Problem 1
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

Localized Areas of Wind Slab around the compass. Look for slightly rounded, smooth pillows and areas with more of a scalloped appearance. Remember that with soft slabs, you're "in" the snow; for hard slabs, you're "on top of" it. Hard slabs have a nasty habit - I think Ev likes to say - of pulling out above you, further narrowing your margin for escape. Treat wind damaged terrain with suspicion today.
Avalanche Problem 2
type aspect/elevation characteristics
LIKELIHOOD
LIKELY
UNLIKELY
SIZE
LARGE
SMALL
TREND
INCREASING DANGER
SAME
DECREASING DANGER
over the next 24 hours
description

At upper elevations it is unlikely but possible to trigger an avalanche breaking on a deeper weak facet layer. Slopes with a shallower snow pack are most suspect – including those that have slid one or more times this year or are steep and rocky. Mark well describes the situation for the central Wasatch below but this applies to the mid-elevations in Provo.
weather

For today we'll have partly cloudy skies with 8 and 10,000' temps rising to the in the upper-30s and upper-20s, respectively. The northwest winds should start to lose steam by late morning. With a warming trend, ridgetop "free air" temps move toward freezing and beyond (mid to upper 30s) by Sunday.

A ridge of high pressure parked off the west coast will keep us under a slowly warming northwest flow for a couple of days until, battered and bruised by near continual storms, it flattens or retrogrades a bit, allowing for more disturbances to move through. None look all that impressive at this time, but it may open the door for something in the near future. Keep an eye on those models. I'm not so sure we're done with winter.
general announcements

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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.