An Avalanche Warning continues today. Many upper elevation slopes have been recently loaded with a substantial amount of snow from wind on Wednesday and snow Wednesday night. Naturally occurring avalanches are unlikely today but many slopes just need the weight of a person to trigger a dangerous avalanche. Avoid getting on steep slopes and stay out from underneath steep slopes as well.

UDOT will do avalanche control work in the Cottonwoods today. Little Cottonwood is closed with an estimated reopening of 8:30am. Big Cottonwood will have intermittent closures between 1pm and 1:30pm. Provo Canyon will have 15 minute closures between 9:30am and 11:30am.

The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on all upper elevation steep slopes. BE CAREFUL - YOU COULD EASILY GO MOST OF THE DAY TODAY WITHOUT SEEING ANY OBVIOUS SIGNS OF INSTABILITY which could lead to a false sense of security. We expect to hear about human triggered avalanches today.

Temperatures were cold overnight in the low teens to single digits and winds were light varying from the northwest to southwest. The upper Cottonwoods have picked up about a foot of snow and the mid portion of Big Cottonwood as well as the Park City Ridgeline received 8 inches which contains .4 to .8 inches of water weight. It’s quite low density snow and has already settled significantly down to about 8 inches in the upper Cottonwoods and around 5 along the Park City Ridgeline and mid Big Cottonwood.

There were some natural avalanches that occurred during the day on Wednesday with the strong winds that transported significant amounts of snow. One was on southeast facing Tuscarora and was 4 to 6 feet deep and 300 feet wide. Another natural was reported from West Monitor which was more shallow and 250 feet wide. UDOT in Provo intentionally triggered an avalanche on a northeast facing slope that broke 2 to 4 feet deep and was 300 feet wide. There was a small pocket reported as a skier remotely triggered slide in the Summit Park area with lots of collapsing occurring as well.

Once the cold front moved in, high snowfall rates produced a natural avalanche cycle reported by UDOT in Little Cottonwood Canyon where one of the natural avalanches just kissed the road around 8pm.

We should see only showery snow flurries today which probably won’t produce all that much accumulation until late this afternoon when the next wave moves through. We will have a quick period of snow this morning which could add a few inches. Winds should stay fairly light from the west and temperatures will get up to around 20 at 8000 feet and teens along the ridges. Another wave moves through late this afternoon which will produce another round of heavier snowfall. Temperatures will be cold and densities light. Another foot of snow is possible into Friday. Things stay unsettled into Saturday and we could see lingering snow showers until then. Things clear out and we’ll have rapidly rising temperatures on Sunday.

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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UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

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.