Wasatch-Cache National Forest  In partnership with:  Utah State Parks and Recreation, Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center-Logan, and Utah State University College of Natural Resources.

                        The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

                                          (click on) Utah Avalanche Center in Logan for our home page                                    

Logan area Avalanche advisory

Monday April 10, 2006

Hello, this is Dave Kikkert with the Logan area backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory from the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center.  It's Monday April 10th at 9:30 pm.  This advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan with help from the USU Outdoor Recreation Center.

Mountain Weather:

A snow advisory will be in affect until Tuesday morning with 2-6" possible above 7,500', and 1-3" down to 6,500'.  Winds should be light from the west-southwest during the storm then begin to increase from the southwest Tuesday.  The forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies Tuesday morning, clearing by late afternoon as high pressure builds in.  As the weak trough exits the area tomorrow morning, temperatures will drop a few degrees with overnight lows in the mid 20's at 8,000' and highs tomorrow near 40°.

Current Conditions:

Only an inch or two of wet snow fell today in most locations.  Colder temperatures should give things a decent refreeze at the upper and mid-elevations overnight.  Tomorrow, conditions should be mostly dust on crust.

Snow and Avalanche Conditions:

With cooler temperatures the snow on most slopes above 6,500' will have at least had a superficial refreeze overnight, and Tuesday morning most wet avalanche activity should be locked up.  The few inches of new snow that has fallen should initially bond pretty well to the old snow.  However, as the sun gets out you can expect the new snow to warm up quickly and wet avalanches will be the primary concern.  Mid-elevation sunny slopes should be the first to warm up, followed by sunny upper elevation slopes and shady mid-elevation slopes. Some lingering clouds and increasing southwest winds may help cool some upper elevation slopes.  The new snow sits on top of a variety of crusts which will make a good sliding surface, and wet avalanches may move faster than you expect and entrain a large amount of snow.  The 2-6'' of snow forecast by Tuesday morning should come in with relatively light winds from the west.  However, Tuesday winds will be increasing from the southwest during the day.  In areas that get 6" or so of new snow you may find a shallow wind-slab or two formed overnight or during the day.  I would expect these to be mostly small and manageable.  Lastly, what snow is left below 6,500' will likely not freeze overnight and it will quickly warm up and become saturated Tuesday.

Bottom Line:

Tuesday, the avalanche danger will start out LOW on most slopes but will rise to rise to MODERATE with daytime heating.  You could trigger avalanches on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with saturated snow.  Sunny lower and mid-elevation slopes are the most suspect, but upper elevation and normally shady slopes also could become active. 

General Information: 

Sunday April 16th will be our last regularly scheduled advisory.

If you're confused by some of our avalanche terms check out the cool new Avalanche Encyclopedia. 

For a list of recent avalanches in the regional backcountry go to Avalanche List.  Snow nerds, check out the new Snow Profiles page.  Check out our Images Page for pictures of recent local avalanches.

Please send backcountry observations to [email protected] or leave a message at 755-3638, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry. We really want to hear from you, even if you think your observation is unimportant.    The information you provide may save lives...

Toby Weed will update this advisory Tuesday evening.

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.