Salt Lake

We are not issuing danger ratings with our forecasts at this time. However, with a storm on the horizon you can expect the avalanche danger to increase rapidly as we have weak sugary snow on slopes that face west to north to east at the mid and upper elevations. We will be updating this forecast by 7:30 am Thursday morning and we will do regular early morning updates through the weekend.

Alta ski area is closed to uphill traffic, including the Supreme area. However, the summer road is open to gain acesses to the backcountry at Catherine's pass. Brighton is allowing uphill traffic on their designated trails, check their website to find out where you can walk uphill. Every ski area has a different up hill policy, so with snow on the way, it's even more important to check with each area if you can go up hill and where.

No avalanche activity has been reported in the backcountry. Drew Hardesty and Evelyn Lees, both have great observations and some insight on the current snowpack found HERE.

Sunny, clear skies will continue to dominate over northern Utah as a ridge of high pressure sits off the coast of California. Over the next two days temperatures will rise into the 40's at upper elevations and dive into the mid to upper teens overnight. You can expect sunny skis with the occasional whispy cloud passing overhead. Winds have been calm and mainly from the northwest for the past 24 hrs. The winds will eventually shift to a more southerly direction as we do have an approaching series of storms that will impact northern Utah through the Holiday weekend. Read below for more info.

Riding and turning conditions are best on upper elevation lower angle grassy slopes. Here you will find supportable riding and some soft turns. Rocks and down trees remain the biggest hazard at this time.

" The times they are a-changin " High pressure off the coast of California will move downstream (east) over the next couple of days and we will see an increase in southerly winds as an upper level trough enters northern Utah late Wednesday evening. This trough will move overhead rather quickly, dropping the temperatures and bringing snow to the valley floor. Friday, we set up with a westerly flow tapping into more available moisture, bringing a better chance of significant snow accumulation to the mountains. The main trough will dig into the area on Saturday allowing stormy weather to continue. It's hard to narrow down the exact timing of each of these troughs and the snow amounts - but guidance is hinting at a range of 16" to 36" inches of snow with 1.2 to 2.7 inches of H20 by Sunday. Stay tuned and fingers crossed!

Photo: looking at the 500 mb Geopotential heights on Wednesday evening at 5:00 pm as the first trough enters our region.