Storm Hits Utah

[Admin]

alright no more discussion of all that snow :wink:

Then you won't want to see this:

. Wind advisory in effect until 9 pm mdt this evening.
. Snow advisory in effect from 6 pm mdt this evening to 9 am mdt Tuesday.
Tonight. Windy. Thunderstorms and snow showers in the evening. Then snow showers after midnight. Accumulation 6-9 inches. Lows at 8000 feet in the upper 20s. South winds 30-40 mph becoming west 25-35 mph.

Tuesday. Thunderstorms and snow showers likely. Accumulation 2-3 inches. Highs at 8000 feet in the upper 30s. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Tuesday night. Thunderstorms and snow showers likely in the evening. Then snow showers likely after midnight. Cloudy. Accumulation 2 inches. Lows at 8000 feet in the lower 20s. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.

Wednesday. Cloudy with snow showers likely. Accumulations possible. Highs at 8000 feet in the upper 30s. Chance of snow 60 percent.

Wednesday night. Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow showers. Lows at 8000 feet in the mid 20s.

Thursday. Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow showers. Highs at 8000 feet in the upper 30s.

Thursday night. Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of snow showers. Lows at 8000 feet in the mid 20s.

Really, it's superfluous now...we really don't even need it. It keeps screwing with my corn. And to think that here, only 10 miles down canyon, I just finished mowing my lawn in shorts and a t-shirt...only 6 days after the last time I had to mow my lawn.

 

[Admin]

OK, I take back what I said in that last post.

8" up at Snowbird this morning, another 12-18" forecast before it ends Thursday morning. 0.1" liquid precip equivalent fell at the mid-Collins Snotel within the past hour. This is no longer a minor annoyance preventing my corn, this is now developing into a full-on May powder event! Snowbird has already decided on an unscheduled reopening Thursday and Friday of the Tram and GadZoom chairs (they're on their weekend-only schedule now) and I'm already planning to play hooky on Thursday morning. Woo-hoo!

As you can see, there's a whole lotta moisture about to hit the Wasatch Front:

 

[Tony Crocker]

Given the 19 inches at Mammoth in the last 2 days, it does not surprise me at all that the Wasatch will get its turn now.

It will be interesting to see what we will be skiing Sunday. I have a lot of experience at this over the years at Mammoth and Baldy, and it's not very predictable. It would help a lot if Snowbird grooms Chip's Run. Then you could have great steep skiing in the Cirque, followed by corn cruising back to the tram.

This is another great thing about Mammoth. They let you go after the big powder days, but after the sun bakes the snow they groom a whole lot, and salt if necessary. Salting is not permitted in LCC because it's too close a source of SLC's water supply. Mammoth's snow ends up in the L.A. Aqueduct, but it's 300 miles long.

 

[awf170]

Given the 19 inches at Mammoth in the last 2 days, it does not surprise me at all that the Wasatch will get its turn now.

It will be interesting to see what we will be skiing Sunday. I have a lot of experience at this over the years at Mammoth and Baldy, and it's not very predictable. It would help a lot if Snowbird grooms Chip's Run. Then you could have great steep skiing in the Cirque, followed by corn cruising back to the tram.

This is another great thing about Mammoth. They let you go after the big powder days, but after the sun bakes the snow they groom a whole lot, and salt if necessary. Salting is not permitted in LCC because it's too close a source of SLC's water supply. Mammoth's snow ends up in the L.A. Aqueduct, but it's 300 miles long.

how does salting work, i always heard about it but never understood how it made the snow better, i would think it would melt it and make it nasty

 

[Admin]

It would help a lot if Snowbird grooms Chip's Run.

They generally do, even when like now the Peruvian side is officially "backcountry."

Then you could have great steep skiing in the Cirque, followed by corn cruising back to the tram.

On Sunday that was more like, "Then you could have great steep skiing in the Cirque, followed by interminable glue back to the tram." Salting sure would've helped on Sunday.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I believe the "salt" is ammonium nitrate. The effect is to absorb the water as it melts on the surface, leaving the snow surface more solid and less likely to stick. When it's really hot Mammoth will even send out the groomers for another round of salting at 10-11AM.

After Snowbird closes, you'll have to come out here and see for yourself. Take your choice among Patrick's weekend June 11-12, mine June 18-19 or the July 2-4 holiday. For that one I will just ski Saturday and then do the Tuolumne River rafting, which should be outstanding with this year's runoff. Several skiers last weekend said the U.S. Ski Team will train at Mammoth in June.

 

[Admin]

After Snowbird closes, you'll have to come out here and see for yourself.

Ya never know...

 

[Admin]

Well, the storm total is up to 15" and counting. A huge glob of moisture is forecast to move into the region today, so 2 feet now seems totally probable. Last night, the snow line dropped surprisingly low -- at 7:30 pm it appeared to be around 6500 feet, from what I could see from the house, but this morning I had about 2 inches on the ground at 5000 feet, so the stuff up in the canyons is probably not as wet as one might expect. Marc_C reports that he heard last night around 10% water content -- not exactly blower, but darned good for May. I suspect that the water content dropped with the temperatures last night.

Tomorrow's gonna go off!!

Here are 2 pictures: 1 of Mt. Olympus around 7:30 last night from near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon that I took with my camera phone, showing the snow line at around 6500 feet, and the other of the Snowbird lower village webcam this morning:

 

[Admin]

Well, Snowbird hasn't yet updated their website snow report, but KSL-TV's evening news reported 28" of total new at mid-Collins at Alta and still coming down, and I'd expect Snowbird next door only a mile or so away to be comparable. Aah...I can't wait for tomorrow!

Here's Alta's photo of the day from yesterday, when it was "only" 15" of new: