The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
(click on) Utah Avalanche Center in Logan for our home page
Logan
Hello and good morning, this is Toby
Weed of the
The
Current Conditions:
Cloud
cover kept the snow nice on many slopes, and you can find decent shallow powder
conditions especially on sheltered slopes at mid and upper elevations. A funky, breakable crust developed late
in the day at lower elevations and on slopes that warmed up yesterday afternoon.
You can ride anywhere once you get
up to snow, but watch out for numerous obstacles, which are only buried by a few
inches of new snow. A steady westerly wind overnight probably
damaged exposed slopes with wind-crusts and stiff drifts. It will be partly cloudy this morning,
with more sunshine and warmer temperatures than yesterday. This week’s fresh snow is likely to get
moist and gloppy pretty quickly on sunny slopes. Clouds should build-in again this
afternoon and could trap heat, and greenhousing may be an issue in sheltered
areas. It will be breezy on the
ridge tops, with west winds in the 20+ mph range expected.
Avalanche
Conditions:
I triggered a small fresh wind-slab
yesterday in a steep mid-elevation gully facing northeast. I also noticed a few
natural loose wet point-release avalanches down low on north and west facing
slopes, which were triggered by snow falling from trees or
cliffs.
In addition to the expected lee slope
loading zones near ridge lines, you might find more stiff drifts and wind slabs
today in and around terrain features like rock outcrops, sub-ridges, and
gullies. You should avoid any obvious drifts on steep slopes, and be cautious if
you encounter stiff, wind blown snow.
Given the high sun angle, intense solar
warming will quickly turn the fresh surface snow wet and sloppy, and loose wet
avalanches will become more likely as slopes are heated up during the day. These will entrain the new snow and
could reach a significant size, especially on big slopes. It’s a good idea to keep one eye uphill
to watch for following wet sluffs, and to move well out of the way of any you
initiate. Although you can
generally escape wet point-release avalanches, they can be quite dangerous to
anyone in the line of fire. Best to
avoid problems and leave when the new snow on the slope you’re on gets sloppy or
saturated.
Bottom Line:
This morning there’s a MODERATE danger in the backcountry, and you
could trigger wind slab avalanches on drifted slopes steeper than about 35
degrees. You are most likely to encounter these in exposed terrain at upper
elevations, on slopes near ridge-lines facing north through southeast, and near
terrain features like gullies, sub-ridges and rock outcrops. With warming
temperatures and periods of powerful spring sunshine likely today, the danger
will rise to MODERATE on sunny slopes with saturated
surface snow. By afternoon, you
might trigger loose wet avalanches entraining significant quantities of heavy
snow, especially on steep sustained slopes.
Mountain
Weather:
Expect
significantly warmer temperatures today in the mountains, with periods of
sunshine-or-cloudiness the determining wildcard. A weak storm passing to our north will
bring a threat of snow showers overnight and more clouds, mild, and breezy
conditions tomorrow. Another small
storm may produce a few inches of new snow on Monday.
General
Information:
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. I also recommend the recently-released Media Page, which
shows the forecast danger for our coverage areas across the state.
Please e-mail me at
[email protected] or leave me a message at 755-3638 if you see or trigger
avalanches in the backcountry. The information you provide may save
lives...
I will update this advisory on Sunday
morning.
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.
