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
To receive automated
e-mails of this advisory click HERE.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Good morning, this Brett
Kobernik with the
An Avalanche Warning remains in effect for the mountains of northern
Current Conditions:
Well it hasn’t quite been
40 days and 40 nights, but it seems like it.
It’s been now 16 days with snow, wind and clouds and it’s piled up a
heavy load of new snow. In the last 24
hours another foot of snow fell in most of the mountains of northern
Yesterday, the ridge top winds
blew 20, gusting to 40 from the south and west and this morning they are
blowing 10-15 from the southwest. Currently
we have cloudy skies with snow falling.
10,000’ temperatures are in the mid 20’s and 8,000’ temperatures are
around 30.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, avalanche
control teams released numerous very large and dangerous avalanches. Some seasoned professionals reported that these
ran as big as they can remember. Many
fracture lines measured 6 feet in depth.
Yesterday the
So in other words, it’s pretty
simple. It’s still hitting the fan out
there and you should stay out of the backcountry. We have buried weak layers and they are
creaking and groaning under all this new weight. Traditional backcountry stability tests won’t
do you much good in these conditions. As
our lead backcountry observer often comments, getting on steep slopes is like using
the Dirty Harry principle: do you feel
lucky?
Bottom Line:
The current avalanche
danger is HIGH. Stay of off and out from underneath any
steep slope. Any avalanche that releases
will be large and deadly.
The avalanche danger is EXTREME in the
Mountain Weather:
Snowfall should continue
throughout the day with 8-12” of snow expected.
Ridge top winds will blow 30 to 40, 10,000’ temperatures will be in the
low 20’s.
This afternoon winds will
shift to the northwest and increase in speed.
Temperatures should drop into the mid teens with 8-12” more snow
expected. Lightning may occur with the
passage of the cold front. Snow should
continue through Wednesday in areas favored by northwest flow.
A ridge builds in later in
the week and we may actually see some clearing.
There are a few
spots left in the Friends of the
Snowbird is
hosting its 2nd annual Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Week January
31 – February 7th as a benefit for the
We do an early morning
update around 6am each day on the 364-1591 line.
If you are getting into
the backcountry and see anything we should know about, give us a call at
524-5304, or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail us at [email protected]
Your information is very
valuable to us.
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Wednesday
morning.
Thanks for calling
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm