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Forecast for the Logan Area Mountains

Toby Weed
Issued by Toby Weed on
Saturday morning, March 21, 2020
The avalanche danger will rise to MODERATE with daytime warmth in the backcountry. People could trigger shallow wet avalanches, and naturals are possible on very steep upper elevation slopes if the sun comes out from behind clouds for a little while today. The snow on northerly facing lower elevation and some mid elevation slopes is saturated and unconsolidated, and although difficult for a person to trigger, wet avalanches gouging loose saturated snow to the ground and entraining large piles of heavy debris are possible on very steep slopes.
  • Evaluate snow and terrain carefully
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High
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Special Announcements
  • We know there is a lot of uncertainty regarding coronavirus, but the Utah Avalanche Center is planning to continue issuing regular avalanche forecasts into April.
  • Uphill Travel at Ski Areas - Some resorts will be offering limited uphill access but not all do. Up to date info about uphill access from Ski Utah is posted HERE.
  • Beaver Mountain is allowing people to earn their turns and practice good social distancing on the hill, and conditions are excellent. Non motorized use only.
Weather and Snow
It's 24°F at the 8400' Tony Grove Snotel. About 1 inch of new snow fell in the last 24 hours at the site, and there is 87 inches of total snow, containing 112% of normal Snow Water Equivalent. It's 19°F at the 9700' CSI Logan Peak weather station, and southwest winds are currently blowing about 12 mph.
People could trigger wet avalanches in steep terrain during the heat of the day today. Lower elevation snow is melting fast and the saturated snow in some areas is too soft. Shallow natural and triggered wet avalanches consisting of fresh snow are likely today in upper and mid elevation sunny terrain, but they should stay pretty small. Although they might be hard to trigger, wet avalanches on northerly facing slopes on lower and some mid elevation slopes could gouge all the snow out to the ground, and involve deep piles of heavy wet snow.
The low elevation snow on a northeast facing slope in Wood Camp is too soft and saturated for my liking...
Weak weather disturbances affecting the area will keep relatively cool and unsettled weather over Utah and southwest Wyoming through today. High pressure will bring a brief warming and drying trend for Sunday, but unsettled weather should return beginning Monday.
Snow showers are likely again today, mainly in the afternoon, with little accumulation likely. It will be mostly cloudy with 8500' high temperatures around 37°F and southwest wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable. It will be mostly cloudy tonight with low temperatures around 20°F and 7 to 9 mph southwest wind. Tomorrow will be partly sunny, with a high near 39°F and 10 to 13 mph west wind.
While water volumes on the Logan River gradually increase, the snow line on the western side of Cache Valley is slowly retreating uphill.
Recent Avalanches
On Monday, we visited the site of a fatal avalanche that occurred Sunday in the backcountry near Pebble Creek Ski Area, south of Pocatello Idaho. Preliminary accident information is HERE .
Here is a short video from the accident site.
  • Observers reported a couple natural storm slabs and small triggered avalanches of new snow at upper elevations in the Central Bear River Range last Saturday.
  • Sunday, riders likely remote triggered cornice fall which triggered a 1' deep and 60' wide avalanche of wind drifted snow at about 9400' on a northeast facing slope near Cornice Ridge.
  • No other avalanches were reported this week in the Logan Zone.
Avalanche Problem #1
Wet Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
  • Sun may pop out from behind the clouds today, and the new snow will quickly become moist with warm temperatures. People could trigger small loose wet avalanches consisting of moist surface snow on steep upper elevation slopes, where a few inches of fresh snow accumulated. Some small natural wet activity is also possible in steep sunny terrain.
  • The snow on northerly facing slopes at lower elevations and on some mid elevation slopes is melt-softened and saturated throughout, and although difficult to trigger people might initiate loose wet avalanches that gouge to the ground and produce large piles of heavy debris.
General Announcements
EMAIL ADVISORY. If you would like to get the daily advisory by email you subscribe HERE.
Remember your information can save lives. If you see anything we should know about, please help us out by submitting snow and avalanche observations....HERE. You can also call us at 801-524-5304, email by clicking HERE, or include #utavy in your tweet or Instagram.
This forecast is from the USDA Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. The forecast describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
We will update this forecast before about 7:30 Monday morning.
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