Wind Slabs
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Possible
- Size
- 2
With Thursday's storm, look for easy sluffing in the low density snow and a generally poor bond with the old snow surface.
Sensitive wind drifts are expected in steep upper elevation terrain. Shooting cracks are a key indicator of instability.
Remember that traumatic injury is common with any early season avalanche accidents.
We will update this as conditions warrant.
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The first natural avalanches ran with the high snowfall rates late Monday or early Tuesday morning. They were fairly shallow in nature but it certainly demonstrates yet again that it's not always how much snow falls, but rather how much how fast.
These shallow new snow avalanches ran in the higher elevations in the steepest terrain but the instability quickly settled out.
After a brutal and record breaking summer, winter has returned.
The range looks pretty wintery after the Friday night and Mon/Tuesday storms and a number of folks have been out enjoying the new snow.
Rough estimates of snow depths in the mountains are as follows:
LCC: 1-2'
BCC: 8-20"
PC: 6-12"
Ogden: 4-8"
Provo: 4-8"
(pc: Barb Eastman)
Another cold front arrives tomorrow (Thursday) that should produce another 1-3" of low density snow. Winds are forecast to remain moderate to strong out of the northwest post-frontal throughout the day and into afternoon with temperatures dropping to the low teens.
A clearing and warming trend follows for the weekend with mountain temperatures rebounding to the low to mid 40s. A quick hitting system follows for Monday.
Knock the rust off and get up to speed with the Utah Avalanche Center podcast. Make sure to catch Early Season Essentials with Bo Torrey HERE or anywhere you get your favorite podcasts.