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Forecast for the Uintas Area Mountains

Craig Gordon
Issued by Craig Gordon on
Thursday morning, December 12, 2024
The avalanche danger is LOW today and human-triggered avalanches are UNLIKELY. Barely clocking in as a hazard, recent winds did whip up a few drifts in the windzone above treeline. And though very manageable, you'll still want to look for and avoid steep terrain that appears fat and rounded.
Lights are on, but nobody's home... yeah it's lean out there and right now the biggest threat is slamming into a season ending buried treasure like a stump, log, or rock. But don't let your heart be troubled, meadow skipping is the ticket and good riding is found on low-angle slopes facing the north half of the compass.
Low
Moderate
Considerable
High
Extreme
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Weather and Snow
Nowcast-
Clouds drift into the Uinta zone early this morning ahead of a weak wiggle of a storm slated to arrive later today. In the mean time, it's mild for mid December with temperatures registering in the low to mid 20's. South and southwest winds started partying near the high peaks late last night, turned the volume down for a few hours, but ramped up around 03:00 this morning and currently blow 20-30 mph.
Forecast-
Look for increasing clouds with light snow showers developing late in the day. High temperatures climb into the mid 30's and dip into the mid teens overnight. Southwest winds bump into the 20's and 30's, gusting into the mid 40's near the ridgelines by about sunset.
Futurecast-
A shallow coat of white paint is slated for Friday mornings commute with a break in the action on tap through midday Saturday. Another quick hitting system slides through late in the weekend. I'm cautiously optimistic there's enough energy to actually stack up a couple inches of snow.
Current Conditions-
Snowpro and all around amazing person, the ever intrepid Trevor Katz was out and about in the Currant Creek zone Tuesday and found soft settled snow on wind sheltered slopes, but up high, snow surfaces remain variable and wind sculpted.
Recent Avalanches
Pretty quiet on the eastern front and it's been two weeks since we've heard of or seen any avalanche activity. The last reported slide occurred on Wednesday, November 27th, near Wolf Creek Pass, failing on our persistent weak layer.
More information on avalanches and current conditions from the range are found HERE.
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Avalanche Problem #1
Normal Caution
Type
Location
Likelihood
Size
Description
Early season snow near the ground has grown weak and sugary, but fortunately, this persistent weak layer (PWL) is largely dormant. In fact, we haven’t seen an avalanche break to the PWL for several weeks, since right around Thanksgiving... good news.
The bad news... the recent drought is turning our snowpack into a weak, sugary mess and it’s rotten to the ground, becoming unsupportable on many polar aspects, especially where the pack is thin.
Triggering an avalanche today is unlikely. That said, I’m still avoiding steep, thin, rocky slopes in upper elevation terrain where a pocket of wind-drift snow sitting on top of facets could react to my additional weight, knock me off my feet and take me for an unexpected ride.
Simple snowpit profiles above from my travels yesterday in Mill Hollow show a little structure in the snowpack, but not exactly the kind of foundation we wanna build our condo complex or our winter snowpack on.
General Announcements
Additional Information
The Uinta weather station network was upgraded this summer and all that real-time info is found here. Simply click on the "Western Uinta" tab and then the "Weather Stations" tab to find all your weather needs.
We are always looking for snow and avalanche observations or just general riding conditions. So... if you see something, say something. You can reach our team directly by contacting: Craig at craig@utahavalanchecenter.org, 801-231-2170, or Andrew at andy@utahavalanchecenter.org, or 860-460-8142.
General Information
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. This forecast was issued on Thursday, December 12th at 0330 AM and expires 24 hours after it was issued. We will update the forecast by 0700 AM tomorrow. But, in the meantime reach out to us with questions, or if you see anything in your travels.
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