US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National
Forest
Introduction:
Good Morning, this is Max Forgensi
with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your with your avalanche and
mountain weather advisory for the Wasatch Plateau/Manti Skyline Region,
including, but not limited to Ephraim, Huntington and Fairview Canyons. This advisory is brought to you through a
partnership of
To
check out past advisories, go to ARCHIVE. To check out the current, go to our WEATHER page.
Current
Conditions:
There is a little change in our
weather pattern today, mid to upper level clouds coming in from the North may
start to produce some snow showers today and into Saturday. With this cold front, expect the temperatures
to drop a couple degrees from what we have been seeing this week. The winds should pick up too with the event
of these short waves of energy coming through our forecast area. Conditions are great to be snowmobiling,
snow-kiting or backcountry skiing.
Miller Flat has two feet of snow on the ground and the road is
snow-packed/icy in a couple spots.
Click the links below to find out
up to date information at these weather stations on the Skyline.
Mammoth/Cottonwood SNOTEL
(8,800’): 19.6” of snow on the ground, 14degrees
at
Seeley Creek SNOTEL (10,000’):
There is 17.4” of snow on the ground, 16 degrees at
Mountain Weather:
Today...Mostly cloudy in the morning then
becoming partly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of snow. Highs at 8000 feet in the mid 20s.
Tonight...Becoming
mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of snow showers. Lows at 8000 feet zero to 5 above.
Saturday...Mostly
cloudy with a 30 percent chance of snow showers. Highs at
8000 feet in the lower 20s.
Avalanche
Conditions: (Click here for the International
Avalanche Danger Scale)
This
weeks observations up on the Skyline leads me to believe that the snow pack,
currently, is stable. The heavy snow we
received two weekends ago has set up into a strong layer of snow. There hasn’t been a natural avalanche or
triggered avalanche in over 10 days.
North through East aspects are still where most of the snow (and powder)
has accumulated on the ground, while most west aspects have been wind damaged
and scoured off.
Southwest-South-Southeast aspects have a 1-2 cm thick sun crust on the
surface. For today and until some
significant weather event occurs, the BOTTOM
LINE is going to be a danger rating of LOW in all
areas of the Manti-Skyline.
Looking into the future, it
appears the weather we have had for the past 10 days is effecting
the upper snow pack. We have sun-crusts
on South aspects while on North aspects we are seeing some
near-surface-faceting. These
near-surface-facets are forming from the temperature changes throughout the day
and night. What we need to know about
these crystals is that they are not bonding very well with the snow layer below
it. When we do get some significant
snow, this layer might be the weak layer that an avalanche will fail on. The snow may be safe now, but when we do get
some more, it is time to re-access!
*The advisory is also
available via recorded message at (800) 648-7433