Avalanche forecast

Skyline

Issued Jan 22, 2021valid to Jan 23, 2021Utah Avalanche Center

Avalanche danger

Alpine
Treeline
Below treeline

Out of date — this forecast expired 6 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Today the avalanche danger remains MODERATE. Very steep upper elevation slopes are the most likely places for a person to trigger a small avalanche.

THE SNOWPACK IS VERY WEAK!! The avalanche danger will increase over the weekend if we get the anticipated amount of snow.

Avalanche problems

Persistent Slabs
N
NE
E
SE
S
SW
W
NW
Alpine
Treeline
Below treeline
Likelihood
Unlikely
Size
1
The snowpack has become very weak during this long stretch with no new snow. In many areas, the snowpack consists entirely of faceted, sugary snow. It is unsupportable and punchy. You punch right through to the ground with your boots in most locations. Even southerly facing slopes contain weak sugary snow. All the snow that's currently on the ground will act as a Persistent Weak Layer once we bury it with more layers of snow. Tonight's storm probably won't be enough to make things really dangerous. My thinking is that it will take a couple of new layers before we see things get really active. BOTTOM LINE: it is almost certain that the avalanche conditions will get dangerous as we add more snow.

Snow and Weather

Current Conditions: Overnight temperatures were in the low 20s. The wind has been from the southwest and has been fairly light.

Mountain Weather: It looks like we're going to get a little snow late today and tonight. We'll see increasing clouds today with highs in the upper 20s and fairly light southwest wind which should increase a bit this afternoon. Bands of snow will move through starting late afternoon and we should see 4 to 8 inches by mid day Saturday. This storm has a southwest flow and also involves warm air advection. I find this situation a bit tricky to forecast. We'll see mostly cloudy skies through the weekend and another storm should move through Monday night bringing another decent shot of snow.