Areas of MODERATE avalanche danger exist in steep terrain at the mid and upper elevations. You will be able to trigger both shallow new snow avalanches in the mid and upper elevations and pockets of wind drifts in the higher elevations. The low elevations have a LOW avalanche danger. These avalanches are just big enough to catch and carry a person and bury them in a terrain trap.
You will be able to trigger shallow avalanches in the new snow in steep terrain. Most of these will be loose snow avalanches but I wouldn't be surprised to see pockets of soft slab avalanches 3-6" deep in the upper elevations. In steep, confined terrain, these new snow avalanches will entrain all of the storm snow and may pile up deep enough to bury you.
Pockets of wind drifts can be found in the high elevation bands today. They will primarily be found on north to east to south facing slopes but all aspects are possible. These soft new wind drifts may be up to a foot or more deep in exposed terrain.
Shallow new snow avalanches were reported in the Salt Lake mountains yesterday - both loose point release avalanches and shallow soft slabs 3-5" deep and 50-100' wide. These soft slabs were running on failure planes within the new snow and not (yet) along the new/old interfaces.
Meisenheimer/Champion
A storm system is favoring the central and southern mountains but the Provo mountains have picked up 8" (0.7"SWE) in the past 24 hours, 6" since midnight. The snow is very low density. Winds are light from the west with temps in the low teens. Along the 11,000' level, winds blew 20-25mph with gusts to 35 for a few hours, but all anemometers are now less than 15mph. We may see a few flurries today with a few more inches tonight. Temps today will be in the single digits up high, the teens at the mid elevations. Winds will be light from the south. Another weak storm is forecast for late week.
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This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done. This forecast is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
