I will give a free avalanche awareness talk on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm at the JCC, just north of the University of Utah Hospital. Check our home page for details.

The avalanche danger is mostly LOW with pockets of MODERATE danger for fresh, shallow, wind slabs in steep, wind exposed terrain. As always, avoid steep slopes with fresh wind drifts. If the sun comes out, there may also be a MODERATEdanger of shallow, damp sluffs on steep sun exposed slopes.

A heartbreaker of a cold front came through last night dropping a measly 2 inches in the Cottonwood Canyons and 5 inches in the Ogden and Logan area mountains. The Salt Lake area mountains will make a valiant attempt to catch up in the next couple hours, but the storm is rapidly dying. The hot tip for the day is to head to the northerly parts of the state where they have been getting a few inches of snow the past couple days in addition to this latest snow. South of I-80, you should hope for the best but prepare for the worst. With the cold temperatures, the pre-existing, wet snow at lower elevations will resemble concrete traffic barriers with just enough of a dusting on top to make them hard to see. Yesterday, I found the pre-existing dry snow to be crusted and tracked-up and in bad need of some freshies. It’s feeling pretty lonely in my cubicle this morning here at the National Weather Service. The only backcountry observation I got from yesterday was a UDOT forecaster who was paid to be out there and he didn’t seem too excited. Temperatures have plummeted to 5 degrees on the highest peaks and 10 degrees on most ridges. Winds blew overnight 20, gusting to 35 from the west and 30, gusting to 50 at 11,000’. Winds have dropped significantly to 10 mph gusting to 15 from the northwest.

There was no new avalanche activity reported from the backcountry yesterday.

The snow has ended north of I-80 and light snow showers should continue south of I-80 this morning and call it quits by mid morning. Temperatures will remain quite cold today with ridge top temperatures clawing their way up to mid to lower teens with a 10 mph wind from the northwest. Clouds should slowly clear out by mid day. Overnight, temperatures will remain very chilly, around 8 degrees on the ridge tops. You should enjoy what little powder we have because ridge top temperatures will pop right back up to freezing for the weekend.

The extended forecast calls for continuing clear, warm weather with a stronger storm for Thursday.

Our web page is now mobile-friendly for users of iPhone and iPod Touch.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides operations planning page is here.

Beacon training parks are up and running! There is one at Snowbasin, one on the Park City side at the top of Canyon’s gondola toward the Tombstone lift, one in Little Cottonwood near the Snowbird parking structure on the bypass road, and in Big Cottonwood a training park is at the west end of Solitude's lower parking lot.

If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.

For a text only version, the link is on the left side bar, near the top.

UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

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Your snow and avalanche observations can save someone’s life. Please let us know what you're seeing by leaving a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 tomorrow morning.