Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

Avalanche ADVISORY

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. Today is Saturday, December 20, 2003 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Clouds are on the increase this morning as a weak weather system brushes by the region. Temperatures have remained fairly warm overnight and it’s currently in the upper 20’s at 10,000’. Winds are generally out of the south at speeds of 10-20 mph along the upper elevation ridges. The combination of sun and spring-like temperatures this week has crusted the sunny slopes, though you can still find soft, creamy powder on shady north facing aspects.

Avalanche Conditions:

All has been quiet on the eastern front the past few days and the only avalanche activity I’ve been seeing is shallow wet sluffs on steep sunny slopes. With another warm day on tap and a marginal refreeze last night, wet sluffs could occur on the shady slopes at mid and lower elevations as well today. While usually slow moving, take care that one doesn’t carry you over a cliff or bury you deep in a terrain trap such as a gully.

At upper elevations our recent bout of tropical weather has helped the surface snow to maintain a bit of strength, however deeper in the pack near the ground, the snow still remains quite weak. This is most pronounced above timberline where total snow depths are less than about 3’ and the under laying terrain is rocky.

In addition, winds are already on the rise this morning along the upper elevation ridges and I’d suspect they’re strong enough to blow snow around, forming shallow wind drifts.

Bottom Line:

In wind-sheltered terrain, and at low and mid elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW today, though be aware of wet, loose sluffs.

Above timberline there are isolated, pockets of wind drifted snow and the avalanche danger is MODERATE on any steep slope with recently formed wind drifts. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

Mountain Weather:

Today we can expect partly to mostly cloudy skies with a slight chance of rain at the lower elevations and light snow above about 8,500’. Colder air is expected to move into the region this afternoon, bringing snow levels down to 7,000’. High temperatures at 8,000’ it will be in the lower 40’s and at 10,000’ in the low to mid 30’s. Overnight lows will be near 20 degrees. Winds will be out of the southwest this morning blowing at speeds of 15-25 mph along the ridges, and should die down as the day progresses. Sunday will be colder with snow showers expected, though total accumulations will only be in the 1”-4” range. Sunny skies return for early next week and the long-range computer models indicate a possible change in the weather pattern towards next weekend.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your observations are an important component to this program. So if you see or trigger an avalanche give us a call at 801-231-2170 or 1-800-662-4140.

Also, if you’d like to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk and/or field day give us a call at 801-524-5304.

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.

This advisory will be updated by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Thanks for calling.