Uintas Conditions 2015

[Nick]

I could be getting lake effect. I live pretty close to the mouth of Big Cottonwood. We've gotten at least another couple inches in the last half hour since I took that photo. It's just dumping. Biggest storm of the entire winter here, I think.

 

[andyjaggy]

Yes it is. I work at point of the mountain and it is dumping here this morning. they are saying another 6 inches on the benches today! Crazy storm.

 

[DrNed]

Utah county seems to have missed out - the flakes were falling steady last night, but nothing on the lawn today.

 

[Nanda]

As someone who's totally not into winter sports, I don't think I've cheered for snowfall this much as today.

 

[Parma]

Looking at the current radar on weather.com you can see that the Uintas didn't get any of the storm.

 

[Devo]

Hourly Snotel is showing 36 now, looks like it is climbing. Doesn't look like the Eastern Uintas are getting much though. At least not yet.

 

[Dave]

UDOT road report says 150 from Kamas to the winter gate is slushy, so they're getting some down low. Ground temperatures will probably mean a lot of it is quickly converting to water, keeping the measurements low. Better gauge of the storm in the Uintas will be the snow-water equivalent measurements.

 

[Nick]

I just read online that SLC airport has gotten more snow today than they did in January, February and March combined. It's still coming down hard here. Woohoooo!

I guess this isn't really relevant to Uintas conditions, but it sure is great!

8am:

10:40am:

 

[Nico]

Very very interested in this thread. I hope folks can throw their updates as they go exploring beyond Kamas in the coming weeks!

 

[andyjaggy]

Holy cow Nick, that's an insane amount of snow. We didn't get any in American Fork. well there was a skiff on the grass this morning but it's already gone.

 

[Dave]

UDOT numbers show 3 1/2 feet of snow at Bald Mountain Pass. They say the Alpine Loop is on track for an opening the weekend before Memorial Day, so I wouldn't expect to hear of 150 opening significantly earlier.

That's 5-6 weeks out, which seems a bit extreme to me. A significant warm spell could hasten that, I'd think.

 

[BIGHORNtracks]

Looking at weather stations in the north slope.

http://www.wunderground.com/StateSnowDepth.asp?state=UT

Steel creek at 10,100 ft was at 31 inches now at 44 inches.
Hewinta at 9,500 ft was 9 inches, now 17 inches.
Trout creek was at 5, now at 17.
Kings cabin was 1, now 10.

Looks like they got around 10 inches out of it.

I take responsibility for this. I got too excited.

 

[Yellowstone 1]

I went on a drive up the Mirror Lake highway this morning. The road is clear up until about a few miles from the Provo River Falls. Snow packed, but only 1 to 1-1/2 feet if that. Looks like plows have made a big pile of snow at that point to deter vehicles. Patchy snow drifts up to that point. None of the main campgrounds are open except Shady Dell, but only because it doesn't have a gate. Plenty of primitive camping spots that are snow free. If UDOT waits another month to clear it they won't have to clear anything.

 

[pixie1339]

Pretty crazy! Thanks for the updates. I'm starting to think that spending Memorial Day weekend backpacking in the Uintas is a very real possibility.

 

[DrNed]

http://www.wunderground.com/StateSnowDepth.asp?state=UT

This thread started with Trial lake at 35" nine days ago. Today (April 20) it's at 27". That seems like A LOT of meltage to me. That would suggest Trial Lake will be at 0" in about a month. Wow!

 

[Nick]

Or a lot sooner if it's warm and/or dry.

 

[Devo]

Temps at trial lake seem to have normalized the last couple weeks. That being said Trial lake lost an average of 1.6 inches a day in May last year. At that rate if Trial lake goes into May at 28 inches (we have warm days but also some storms on the radar for the Uintas). That would mean Trial lake would likely be 0 around 18th.



Usually a week after Trial Lake reads zero the High Elevation stuff is really clearing up too (passes an obvious exception). So even though this year is the earliest possible Memorial Day (the 25th) its possible a lot of the Uinta basins will be doable Memorial Day. (just crazy!)

Obviously we are dealing with weather and its never very predictable. I could see it melting sooner, or we could get a huge storm in early May that pushes it out, but it is fun to speculate either way!

I do think it is interesting that right now actual snow depth is more or less equal to the snow water equivalent last year.

Ok I am done geeking out.

 

[Nick]

I think maybe we should start an annual guessing game to see who can predict when the Trial Lake snotel will hit zero snow for the first time. At this rate, I'm guessing 5/10 it'll be at zero.

 

[Devo]

I like it! I am going to say the 5/14.

 

[pixie1339]

I'll split the difference and say 5/12.