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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Tuesday morning, January 31, 2023
Pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger exist on steep, upper elevation leeward slopes, especially in the wind zone at and above treeline. Both old and fresh wind drifts reactive to our additional weight are POSSIBLE, particularly on steep slopes with a south and easterly component to its aspect. Lose the wind and you lose the problem... generally LOW avalanche danger is found on mid or low elevation slopes around the compass where human triggered avalanches are UNLIKELY.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
Learn how to read the forecast here
Weather and Snow
Nowcast- Skies cleared last night and temperatures plummeted like a bad stock option with most remote weather stations cratering to -15 degrees. Northerly winds blow 15-25 mph along the high peaks creating dangerously cold windchill of -35 degrees. However, if you can get past the ice cream headache you'll find 5 star riding and turning conditions.
Forecast- Expect sunny skies, temperatures barely creeping into the teens, and northerly winds blowing 10-20 mph along the high ridges.
Futurecast- Not much going on... we remain high and dry through the work week. Temperatures steadily increase each day and winds are generally light. A quick hitter late in the week delivers a couple traces of snow Friday.
Ka-Pow! Weston D and Mark Staples took a rip around Smith-Moorehouse yesterday and report amazing coverage with even more amazinger riding conditions. Their trip report is found HERE.
Huge thanks for all the great obs streaming in from the eastern front. Detailed trip reports and recent obs are found HERE.
Recent Avalanches
It'll take a keen eye to see this slide from the Mill Hollow trail. On Sunday, Shaun, Weston, and I checked out Saturday's human triggered slide on a steep, lower elevation, northwest facing slope in the Mill Hollow zone. We found the piece of snow breaking 18" deep and failing on a buried layer of Near Surface Facets mostly likely formed last Monday during a little break in storms and then buried and preserved by last weeks storms. More deets found HERE.
No other significant recent avalanche activity to report. However, if ya wanna geek out, click HERE to track this years slide activity throughout the range.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Wind Drifted Snow
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
The image above reflects a 24 hour data dump from Windy Peak (10,662') illustrating winds along with brutally cold temps.
For the past few days winds have blown from every quadrant of the compass and there's no shortage of light snow available for transport. And while I think most of our fresh wind drifts have settled significantly, I bet there's a lingering drift or two that remains sensitive to our additional weight. Found on upper elevation leeward slopes and cross-loaded in chutes and gullies, both old and newly formed drifts may catch you by surprise, breaking deeper and wider than you might expect. This avalanche dragon is easy to navigate by avoidance... simply lose a little elevation, you lose the wind, and you lose the problem.
Additional Information
Not in the hat wearing category just yet, but our good friends and partners at the SLC NWS give us the heads up for today and tomorrow.
Weather stations-
And... rime events have severely crippled the Uinta weather station network. I'm working to get it back up and running, but a few stations are found HERE (click weather stations, and then on the Western Uinta tab)
Observations-
Your observations are important, so please let me know what you're seeing... click HERE and contribute to this amazing community-based program
General Announcements
Issued at 02:51 on Tuesday January 31st, this forecast expires 24 hours after the date and time posted, but will be updated by 07:00 Wednesday February 1st, 2023.
Before it gets too crazy, now is the time to book an avalanche awareness presentation for your group, club, or posse. You can reach Craig directly at 801-231-2170 or craig@utahavalanchecenter.org.
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.
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