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Observation: Uintas

Observation Date
3/14/2020
Observer Name
Brackelsberg
Region
Uintas
Location Name or Route
Smith & Morehouse
Weather
Sky
Broken
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
South
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Light snow fell until 2pm when the clouds started to break. The wind picked up throughtout the day.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
5"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
5" of new snow fell on a variety of surfaces from supported crust to soft snow. There were sensitive wind slabs up high and some areas where the new snow did not bond well to the old surface crust. On steeper terrain, we found it easy to trigger wind slabs and new surface sluffs both of which would entrain a decent amount of snow and run quite a distance.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Red Flags Comments
Strong winds were transporting a significant amount of snow.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
The winds were blowing HARD and picked up during the day. There was plenty of snow to transport since the sun did not come out. With continued winds, the wind slabs will continue to be a concern. For today, the wind slabs were soft slabs so they were very manageable. With another night of wind and if the sun came out later in the day, these could become hard slabs and less manageable.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
New Snow
Problem #2 Comments
As noted above, the new snow was not bonding well with the harder old snow surfaces. This had a lot of spatial variability.
Comments
One of the numerous, managemable new snow sluffs we had during our day.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates