Salt River and Wyoming Ranges

The General Avalanche Hazard is MODERATE and will be increasing during the day. Unstable conditions exist on steep slopes with fresh deposits of wind drifted snow that are underlain by weak faceted snow. Strong southwest winds will drift snow and increase the potential for humans, especially those on snow machines, to trigger slab avalanches up to three feet in depth.

( Discussion is generated from the previous day's afternoon forecast. )Periods of light snow with accumulations of 1 to 3 inches are expected tonight. A winter storm watch has been issued for the period of Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Snowfall will become heavy at times and in conjunction with strong winds should cause white-out conditions in open areas. Snowfall amounts of 8 to 16 inches in the mountains and 4 to 8 inches in the valleys are possible by Sunday evening. Temperatures will be in the single digits above zero to the teens. The general avalanche hazard will be MODERATE during the morning hours. Strong winds and heavy snowfall could rapidly increase the hazard to CONSIDERABLE in the late afternoon. New sensitive soft slabs will form on leeward aspects. If significant loading occurs these slabs could build enough volume to spontaneously release or step down to buried weak layers by evening.