In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Good Morning. This is Craig
Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and
mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains including but not
limited to the terrain surrounding Chalk Creek, Smith-Moorehouse, the Mirror
Lake Highway, and Woodland. Recent fieldwork conducted on the Evanston side of
the range and near Daniels, indicates similar snowpack conditions.
This
advisory is made possible through a generous grant provided by Utah State Parks
and will be available for the rest of the winter on weekends and holidays.
Today
is Sunday, March 30, 2003, and it’s 7:30 in the morning.
Current Conditions:
Temperatures are already on the
rise and are 10-15 degrees warmer than yesterday morning at this time. As of
6:00 it’s in the low 20’s at 10,000’ and the winds are generally out of the
northwest at speeds of 15-25 mph along the ridges. Yesterdays strong sunshine
cooked a lot of the mid and lower elevation terrain and it was damp and sloppy on
all aspects below about 9,000’. Though with clear skies overnight I think you
could still find good, settled powder conditions on upper elevation, northerly
facing slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
The instabilities within the
new snow we received last week have relaxed quite a bit over the past few days.
Yesterday I was finding the slab created during the mid week storm, was getting
baked in place and becoming more stubborn as the day wore on. While moderate
northwesterly winds were able to create a new batch of wind slabs in the upper
elevation terrain these should be relatively shallow today. Though they might
pack enough punch to knock you off your skis or machine and take you for an
unplanned downhill descent.
Today we’re dealing with a much
different animal and we’ll need to switch gears and start thinking about wet
avalanches again. Temperatures are already on the rise and winds should be
dying down around midday. This combination coupled with strong sunshine today is
going to add a lot of heat to the snowpack and the danger of wet slides and
sluffs will increase throughout the day. Remember the sun is high in the sky
this time of year and its heating effects can be felt on all aspects.
In addition, the rapid
warming trend might help to reactivate some of the deeper, buried weak layers
in the snowpack. I’d continue to be cautious in steep rocky terrain with a
shallow weak snowpack.
.
Bottom Line:
The danger of wet avalanches
is generally LOW this morning but will rise to MODERATE on all steep sun
exposed slopes with daytime heating. Should temperatures be higher than
forecast the avalanche danger could rise to CONSIDERABLE. As is always the case this time of year, you’ll
want to get off of and out from under steep slopes as the day progresses.
There is still a MODERATE
or localized danger of triggering a deeper avalanche which could break
into weak snow near the ground, on steep, upper elevation northwest through
east facing aspects. This danger may also rise with afternoon heating.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure will continue to
dominate our weather today and we can expect mostly sunny skies, decreasing
wind, and balmy temperatures. Highs today at 10,000’ will be in the low 30’s
and at 8,000’ near 45 degrees. Overnight lows will drop into the lower 20’s.
Winds will be out of the northwest at speeds of 15-25 mph this morning, dying
down into the 10-20 mph range later in the day. Monday looks to be windy and
significantly warmer with 8,000’ highs near 50 degrees. It looks like a return
to winter around Wednesday and we could see cold, moist, unsettled weather
continuing into next weekend
General Information:
If you’re getting out and
about please let us know what you’re seeing, especially if you see or trigger
an avalanche. Call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to [email protected] or fax to 801-524-6301.
Your observations could help to save someone’s life. I’ve received some great
observations this past week and thanks to those of you who called in with
timely snowpack and avalanche information. Please keep them coming!
We will be offering free
snowmobile specific avalanche education this year. To schedule a talk and or a
field day please call 801-231-2170.
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 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 5, 2003.
Thanks for calling