Wasatch-Cache National Forest  In partnership with:  Utah State Parks and Recreation, Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center-Logan, and Utah State University College of Natural Resources.

                        The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

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Logan area Avalanche advisory

Monday February 13, 2006

Hello, this is Dave Kikkert with the Logan area backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory from the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center.  It's Monday February 13th at about 9:00 pm.  This advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan with help from Voile.

Mountain Weather:

The high pressure that has dominated our weather for the last week will move out tonight ahead of a long wave trough set to arrive Tuesday morning.  Tuesday will be mostly cloudy with some snow showers possible in the morning, then an increased chance in the afternoon and evening.  We should only pick up a couple of inches for Valentines Day as the real dynamics necessary for good snowfall don't arrive until sometime Wednesday.  Winds will be from the southwest tonight in the 20-25 mph range, then shift around to the northwest Tuesday and remain near 20 mph.  For more up to date weather check our weather page.

Current Conditions:

Tuesday, you will still find some settled powder on northerly facing slopes that are protected from the wind.  Sunny slopes will be crusted to some degree or another.  While not a whole lot of snow is expected Tuesday, a few inches could really help freshen things up a bit.  

Avalanche Conditions:

Overall, most people have found the snowpack to be quite stable on most slopes in the Logan Area Mountains with no avalanches reported in a week.  Tuesday, the avalanche danger will generally remain low as only a few inches of snow are expected during the day.  Winds are set to increase into the 20-25 mph range, however there isn't a whole lot of snow to move around right now and we shouldn't see widespread development of wind-slabs until we receive a bit more snow.  As snow is on the way it would be good to start thinking about the future avalanche danger.  Under the last week of cold, clear nights the surface snow has weakened, or faceted, on many slopes.  On northerly facing slopes these facets are right on the surface while on other slopes they are capped by a thin zipper crust.  These facet and facet/crust layers will likely be active as weak layers once a slab of new snow is in place. 

Bottom Line:

Tuesday there is generally a LOW avalanche danger on most slopes in the backcountry.  You still might find a few exceptions on a few very steep, very wind-drifted slopes.  The avalanche danger will rise by late Tuesday night if we get significant amounts of new snow.

General Information: 

We will offer a free avalanche awareness talk open to the public at the Directive on Wednesday evening, February 15th at 7:00.

For a list of recent avalanches in  the regional backcountry go to Avalanche List.  Snow nerds, check out the new Snow Profiles page.  Check out our Images Page for pictures of recent local avalanches.

Please send backcountry observations to [email protected] or leave a message at 755-3638, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry. We really want to hear from you, even if you think your observation is unimportant.    The information you provide may save lives...

Toby Weed will update this advisory by tomorrow evening.

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. 

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.