Avalanche forecast

Ogden

Utah Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

  • Alpine
  • Treeline
  • Below treeline
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Out of date — this forecast expired 7 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

HEADS UP: The avalanche danger will be increasing during the next few days as a major storm impacts most of the state.

Today, the avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on upper elevation northerly facing slopes. A combination of wind drifted snow and old, weak, faceted snow underneath will create dangerous avalanche conditions on these slopes. A MODERATE danger exists on upper elevation, southerly facing slopes, and on mid-elevations northerly facing slopes.

Slopes at low elevations and south-facing slopes mid-elevations, simply don't have enough snow to ride and hardly enough snow to create an avalanche, thus they have a LOW danger.

What to do? The only viable strategy is to ride low angle slopes (less than 30 degrees in steepness) which are not steep enough for an avalanche. With such thin snow cover, hitting rocks or stumps remains the greatest hazard.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2

    Old snow that covered northerly facing slopes through much of November became weak and faceted. This weak snow is not widespread and exists mostly at the highest elevations and now has soft slab of new snow on top of it now. Yesterday's new snow wasn't enough of a load to stress this weak snow and cause avalanches. That should change today as a result of strong south winds transporting snow this morning followed by snowfall today. The combination of this wind-blown snow and snow falling from the sky will stress the weak, faceted snow underneath. This added stress will make human triggered avalanches likely and create dangerous avalanche conditions.

    The dilemma is that with such early season conditions, the deepest snow and best coverage is on upper elevation, north-facing slopes. These slopes are the ones that will produce avalanches. The only option is then to find similar slopes that are not steep enough to avalanche (less than 30 degrees in steepness). South-facing slopes simply don't have enough snow to ride today.

    Doug Wewer snapped a few great photos of old snow coverage on Ben Lomond Peak like the one below.

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2

    Expect both hard and soft slabs of wind drifted snow from this morning's very strong southerly winds.

    These fresh slabs will be especially sensitive and break over a wider area on upper elevation, northerly facing slopes where they rest on top of the old, weak, faceted snow. What complicates the situation is that yesterday's strong north winds loaded some south-facing slopes where avalanches remain possible.

General Announcements

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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.

Special Announcement

The First Annual Statewide Avalanche Awareness Week is December 2-7. We have a week full of fun and educational events planned. Check out the schedule here.

Recent Activity

None reported

Snow and Weather

Winds ramped up this morning ahead of the next storm. At 5 a.m. southerly winds were averaging 15-35 mph and gusting 40 mph. Ogden Peak had wind gusts 60-75 mph.

Temperatures were mostly in mid-teens F with wind chills in below zero.

Snowfall was just beginning this morning. It appears that 2-3 inches had fallen near Snowbasin and Ben Lomond as of 5 a.m.

Today snowfall will increase and produce about a foot of snow by this evening. Exactly how much snow will be dependent on how this storm unfolds. Much of the precipitation could remain a little west or the system could line up directly over the Wasatch and produce more snow than expected. Temperatures will remain cold and only reach about 20 degrees F before cooling again this afteroon.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for a video from the National Weather Service about this storm.

Additional Info

Below is a video from the National Weather Service outlining how the storm over the next few days could unfold.

Regions covered