Salt River and Wyoming Ranges

The General Avalanche Hazard is CONSIDERABLE today. New snow and wind has resulted in surface slabs that will be easy to trigger in avalanche terrain today as they lie upon good sliding surfaces including crusts and surface hoar. The size and sensitivety of these slabs will increase today as the snowfall continues. In addition to the hazard of these easy to trigger surface slabs, once a slide is initiated there is good chance it will trigger a deeper hard slab event upon a thick faceted layer at the base of the snowpack.

( Discussion is generated from the previous day's afternoon forecast. )6-10 inches of snow is predicted in the mountains by sunrise, followed by 4-8 inches during the day on Thursday. Winds are expected to continue from the Southwest, at 30-40 mph tonight, and 20-30 mph during the day. Temperatures should remain in the upper teens to low twenties. The General Avalanche Hazard is expected to be CONSIDERABLE by morning, and increase throughout the day as new snow and wind create easy to trigger surface slabs on a variety of aspects as these slabs form on crusts, hard snow and buried surface hoar. Additionally this new load could increase the chance of triggering deeper hard slabs that lie upon the buried, persistent week layer.