The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
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Logan
Hello and good morning, this is Toby Weed of the
We
are continuing a Special Avalanche Advisory through tonight for the mountains of
Current Conditions:
Well,
at least it didn’t rain yesterday. It
didn’t snow either and instead turned into a rather nice day. The incessant southwest wind picked up in
intensity even more yesterday afternoon, posting sustained hourly averages at
the CSI weather station in the 40+ mph range, with gusts in the mid to upper
70s. It’s snowing heavily this morning
in the
Avalanche Conditions:
We
noted fairly widespread wet avalanching at lower elevations in yesterday’s
warmth. One slide came down the
fire-ravaged slope above First Dam, inflicting some property damage and
stopping within a couple hundred feet of the river. More wet avalanches may be
possible this morning, but the biggest danger today will come from wind
deposited heavy snow which is piling up on weak snow that was on the surface
last week. I was able to crack out a couple small soft wind slabs yesterday on
a west northwest facing sub-ridge at around 7300’.
It
seems like southwest winds have been howling for days in the mountains, and
gradually they’ve intensified to outrageous.
The wind caused extensive drifting and built hard and soft slabs on
numerous steep slopes at all elevations.
The biggest problems are likely
to be found at upper elevations, near ridge tops, and on slopes facing the
northern half of the compass. Hard and
soft slabs could be up to 2’ deep and may be quite sensitive, as many formed on
weak surface snow. Watch for smooth
chalky looking or hollow sounding drifts on steep exposed slopes and
cross-loaded slabs in and around terrain features like gully walls, rolls,
sub-ridges, and cliff bands. Obvious drifts however, will become obscured today
by rapidly accumulating new snow.
Rapid accumulation of heavy
snow on top of existing weaknesses will likely cause a dramatically increasing
danger on all steep slopes in the backcountry. Heavy snowfall combined with
strong winds leads to extensive loading over large areas, often depositing tons
of snow onto slopes well off ridge lines. This may become a serious issue by
mid-afternoon. As significant snowfall
piles up on steep slopes and avalanche starting zones, the danger will become
much more widespread.
Bottom Line:
There’s a CONSIDERABLE
danger and you could probably trigger wind slab avalanches on many drifted
slopes steeper than about 35 degrees in the backcountry. This morning, you’ll find the most danger on
steep upper elevation slopes facing the northern half of the compass. With heavy snowfall and strong winds in the
forecast, expect the danger to rise significantly and become much more
widespread throughout the day. The
danger will probably rise to HIGH
during the day, and significant natural and triggered avalanches
will be likely. You should avoid travel
in backcountry avalanche terrain.
Mountain Weather:
The National Weather
Service has continued a Winter
Storm Warning through
General Announcements:
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'm very interested to know what
you're seeing out there. Please e-mail observations to me at [email protected] or leave me a message at 755-3638,
especially if you see or trigger an avalanche in the backcountry. We keep all
observations confidential.
The
second annual avalanche awareness ride is Saturday Feb. 2nd and we’d
love to see all of you there! Proceeds
help to support snowmobile specific avalanche awareness projects. Details can
be found at http://www.avarides.com/
This
advisory will expire in 24 hours from the posting time.
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.
