Wasatch
Cache National Forest
In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County,
and Utah State Parks
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Avalanche advisory
Saturday, April 6, 2002 07:30 AM
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Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
Skies were mostly cloudy
overnight, and temperatures remained above freezing for the second night in a
row. They are currently in the mid
thirties to low forties, and following Friday’s very warm highs of 45 to 60. The snow pack did not refreeze last night, and
both surface layers and deeper layers within the snow pack have become damp,
with the consistency and strength of a slurpee or margarita.
Winds are averaging 15 – 20 mph from the
southwest with gusts to near 40 in the more exposed locations.
We are doing an early morning
corn report on the (801) 364-1581 line by
Avalanche Conditions:
We have issued a special
avalanche advisory for the northern mountains of
We are in a wet slab avalanche
cycle, and activity from yesterday includes several west facing slopes in Big Cottonwood
at 9200’, that were 50 to 100’ wide, with debris depths of 4 to 6 feet deep,
another east facing slope below the Hypodermic Needle in Hogum
that was 150’ wide, the Y couloir in Little Cottonwood Canyon, and very deep debris
was discovered in the meadows of Days Fork early this morning. Several 1 to 4 foot deep wet slab avalanches
have been reported from the
Following a second night without
a solid overnight freeze, the snow pack has continued to loose strength and both
wet sluffs and wet slab avalanches are possible today. Both
may release naturally, with the full depth wet slab avalanches the most
dangerous. These can be massive,
catastrophic events. This year’s snow
pack, containing some very weak layers that formed in January, is unusually
susceptible to this type of slide. Some
of these avalanches have already pulled out around the range and more are sure
to follow. While the timing of this type
of slide is less predictable than we would like, periods without overnight
freezes make these very dangerous avalanches more likely.
If you must travel in the
snow covered backcountry today, stay on low angle slopes, and be very careful
to avoid areas with steep slopes above you.
There are already instances of large slides depositing deep debris down onto
the flats and even into grassy meadows.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on
and below all steep snow covered slopes today.
Human triggered avalanches are likely and natural avalanches
possible. There is a danger of very
large full depth avalanches releasing naturally, especially in very steep rocky
terrain.
(
Same as
(
Same as
Mountain Weather:
A
weak storm system is on track to bring some cooler air into northern
General Information:
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides are done for the season.
To
report backcountry snow and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or
trigger an avalanche, you can leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140. We have a new avalanche and backcountry observation page that we’d like
to encourage folks to try out. It can be
found on our home website at avalanche.org. You can also fax an observation to
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.
I
will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
For
more detailed weather information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: