We will issue morning forecasts for the next few days, as the wind and snow are making avalanche conditions slightly more interesting. Also check out the web site updates, including the Current Conditions and Education tabs at the top of the page.

Today, there are pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger on steep slopes for shallow, hard wind drifts that could crack out beneath the weight of a person. These drifts, or slabs, will be found on both mid and upper elevation shady slopes with snow cover. Terrain not affected by the wind has a LOW danger.

A week of sun and high pressure once again melted the southeast through westerly facing slopes back down to dirt, leaving the limited options for turning and riding unchanged - upper elevation(above about 9,500’), northwest through easterly facing slopes. Unfortunately, most snow surfaces are very wind damaged; sporting a variety of breakable crusts, and rock evasion skills are still prized due to the very shallow snowpack.

For the past 20 hours, mid and upper elevation winds have been from the southeast to southwest, averaging 20 mph, with gusts in the 40’s. Speeds across many of the exposed ridge crests averaged 35 mph, with gusts to 80 mph. With the cold front already past, wind speeds are decreasing, and temperatures are falling, currently in the upper teens to low 30’s.

Yesterday’s winds created shallow, hard wind slabs, 2 to 6 inches thick, that cracked easily, failing on the weak near surface facets. The largest triggered wind slab was 50' across, but very short running.

The cold front has already slipped into northern Utah, bringing light snow to the Logan and Ogden area mountains. South of I-80, we can only hope for a few snow flurries later this morning, with a trace to 2” possible. Temperatures will continue to fall, into the 20’s at 8,000’ and into the teens at 10,000’. The winds will become more westerly, and decrease into the 10 to 20 mph range. Partly cloudy skies tonight, with light westerly winds, and temperatures in the teens and single digits. The next storm, forecast to arrive late Sunday afternoon, should be a slightly better snow producer, with showers lingering into Monday morning. However, once this small storm moves through, we are stuck once again with high pressure for most of next week.

Envision Utah is looking for input on the “Wasatch Canyons Tomorrow” update of the County's 1989 Plan, in partnership with Salt Lake City, the State of Utah and the US Forest Service. There is an online survey “Wasatch Canyons Tomorrow” at http://www.envisionutah.org/index.html .

We will be issuing intermittent morning or afternoon avalanche advisories as conditions change.

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UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

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We appreciate avalanche and snow observations. If there’s something we should know about give us a call at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

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.