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Once again, overnight low temperatures stayed well above freezing, from the valley floors to the highest mountain tops. Radiation heat loss from clear skies created a thin, superficial crust on the dusty snow surface that will probably be supportable in many areas, but the snow on most slopes will quickly soften up in today's hot sun. Melt will continue to percolate into the winter snowpack, saturating and loosening the snow, and elevating avalanche danger on slopes facing all directions. On Thursday in Bloomington Canyon, I found isothermic, melt-softened snow. My snowpit tests in southerly terrain near Paris Peak indicated that a wet slab could propagate where melt was pooling on a solid crust, creating a slushy weak layer. Here is the report. In northerly terrain, the intense heat could cause dangerous slab avalanches to fail naturally on a buried persistent weak layer, and natural wet slab and loose avalanches entraining wet snow are possible on slopes at all elevations steeper than 30 degrees. Except for north-facing slopes and shady canyon bottoms, the snow has completely melted off most terrain below about 7000 feet in the Logan Zone.
The snow surface is very dusty and patterned in wind-exposed areas at upper elevations.
It's way too warm: The UAC Card Canyon weather station at 8700 feet reports a toasty 48°F and 51 inches of total snow. It's also 48°F at the Tony Grove Snotel at 8400', with 61 inches of total snow. At 9700 feet on Logan Peak, winds are blowing from the west 15 to 28 mph. And at 0600, it's already 46°F on Paris Peak at 9500 feet! The winds are from the west-southwest, 17 to 25 mph. Mountain top temperatures will climb to around 60°F again this afternoon, while temperatures in Cache Valley will be near 80°F. Tonight, mountain temperatures will remain well above freezing again, and tomorrow will be mostly sunny and about as warm as it is today. With dangerous wet avalanche conditions, avoiding travel in avalanche terrain is the obvious best choice. And with marginal backcountry riding conditions on slushy, dusty snow, this weekend's plans might include warmer-weather activities like gardening, golfing, climbing, or biking.
Temps at the 8400' Tony Grove Snotel are hovering a bit below 50°F this morning.
Yesterday, we observed recent natural wet activity on sunny slopes in the Wellsvilles, Woodcamp, and the Northern Bear River Range.
A natural loose wet avalanche covers recent tracks near Bloomington Lake.
Find observations from the Logan Zone and from across the state HERE.
