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Logan area Avalanche statement

Thursday April 19, 2007

Hello and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your Logan Area backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  It’s Thursday April 19th and it’s 7:00 in the morning.  This advisory is brought to you in part by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center in Logan with help from Import Auto.

 We will continue to issue avalanche statements intermittently through the month of April.

Current Conditions:

 Snowfall intensified dramatically in the past few hours in the Bear River Range, and the Tony Grove Snotel Site recorded over 10 inches of snowfall containing 1.1 inches of water in the last 6 hours. The Winter Storm Warning will continue through 8:00 this morning, and we may see a few more inches of accumulation before its all said and done. There’s lots of new snow in the high country, and it could be somewhat windy, especially on the ridges.  Westerly winds are forecast in the 15-20 mph range today, which are plenty strong enough to cause significant drifting.  The next storm in the late spring train arrives tomorrow night and more snow is likely….. Better dust off the goggles…

Avalanche Conditions:

 Well, we finally got real a spring snowstorm, and wind slab and storm snow avalanches are our main concern today.  The stability of the new snow depends on the condition of the sun-crust it falls upon.  The theory is; if the crust is frozen solidly when the snow starts to accumulate it won’t be as stable as it will be if the crust is soft and warm.  I’d recommend digging down to the old/new interface to check the bond.  Wind drifting might cause a significant danger on lee slopes near ridge-lines and around terrain features like gullies or rock out-croppings and along vertical sub-ridges.  New snow instabilities (and powder snow quality) should only linger for a little while after the storm abates, but loose wet avalanches will likely be an issue as slopes are warmed by the inevitable spring heat.

Mountain Weather:

We’ll likely see a few more inches of snowfall in the mountains this morning, and snow showers and clouds will persist through the day.  A south wind will pick up overnight and it will be mostly cloudy and mild on Friday in advance of the next Pacific storm system.  We’ll probably see more snowfall over the weekend, but it looks like most of the storm energy will pass to our south.  More stormy weather is on tap for next week.

General Information:

The text version of this advisory is still available.

Check out photos of avalanches in the Logan Area on our images page.

Go to the Avalanche Encyclopedia if you have any questions about terms I use in the advisory

Please continue to e-mail backcountry observations to me at [email protected] or leave me a message at 755-3638.  I will frequently check my messages throughout the spring.

I will update this statement as conditions change.

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.