I hope you got up to the mountains yesterday and enjoyed the beautiful weather as it's not going to be so nice today. A fast moving storm system will clip by to the north bringing increasing clouds and blustery SW winds blowing in the 20-25 mph range with gusts as high as 40 along ridgetops. We'll see a slight chance for snow tonight before the storm moves on and winds shift to the NW. Monday and Tuesday look dry and sunny followed by another system moving into the region on Wednesday. This one doesn't look particularly promising but we may get a refresh of a few inches.
Snowpack
Dangerous avalanche conditions exist in all zones throughout Utah, and most of Colorado. This is due to a buried persistent weak layer of loose, sugary, faceted snow that formed near the snow surface during the extended dry period of Jan-Feb. This faceted weak layer now sits beneath a slab up to 2' deep. In my travels on the Manti-Skyline on Friday with forecaster Brett Kobernik, we met a party of snowmobilers who had remotely triggered a very large avalanche from below the slope. Yesterday, Brett and Trent from the SLC office were able to intentionally trigger numerous avalanches failing on this weak layer and at least one snowmobiler was lucky to escape a large slide that he triggered. Our snowpacks share similarities with the primary difference being that we are a little further out from the last loading event. These are unusual conditions for this time of year. Time heals all wounds but I'm afraid this one is taking awhile, and the likelihood for triggering an avalanche on a steep, northerly facing slope remains very real.
