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
Current Conditions:
Considering that May is only a few days away, you’ll find
surprisingly good powder conditions today in the mountains, especially at upper
elevations. The Tony Grove Snotel
reports picking up almost 11 inches of fresh snow yesterday, containing 1.1
inches of water. Yesterday afternoon up
in the Maple Creek area we found elevation dependent deep and cold new snow,
ranging from a few inches at around 7000’ to well over a foot above 9000’. This fell on a nice melt-smoothed surface,
and we couldn’t feel any old tracks. The
new snow remained un-affected by spring heating, and we found great winter-like
powder conditions on slopes facing all directions. The CSI weather station on
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, we produced lots
of shooting cracks in the new snow, and in some cases the new snow was not well
bonded the underlying melted and then refrozen old snow. My tests in these wind affected areas showed
all the fresh snow sticking together as a slab and shearing cleanly off the
warm old snow surface…
Northwest winds are
forecast to increase significantly by this afternoon, which will cause
considerable drifting of the new snow in exposed terrain. You are likely to trigger soft or stiffer
freshly formed wind slab avalanches in the one to two feet deep range on steep
drifted slopes at upper elevations.
While you are probably used to this problem after a few months of
similar conditions this season, don’t be caught of guard by a broader than
expected release, and envision the consequences of an avalanche in the terrain
you’re in. Ask yourself, could you be
swept into trees or rocks below, or could even a small avalanche overwhelm you
in that steep sided gully? The huge
local cornices built out anew and will continue to build in today’s wind. They’ll also certainly continue to pose a
danger, becoming more sensitive or active as things heat up again in the next
few days.
A high pressure system will move over the region this weekend and it’ll warm up significantly on Sunday and Monday. This will cause the new snow to quickly become saturated and prone to wet avalanching on many steep slopes. Although I don’t anticipate much of a problem until then, solar warming from the intense high angled spring sun could cause sizable wet sluffs on sunny slopes today and/or tomorrow as well. Always good to respect and avoid steep slopes with saturated new snow, as wet avalanches can entrain lots of heavy snow quickly.
Bottom Line:
We have stopped issuing danger
ratings for the season. But, as long as
there is snow on steep slopes in the backcountry avalanches will continue to be
possible, especially during or right after windy spring storms or following or
prolonged warm spells.
A dry cold front will pass over the
region this afternoon and it will get quite windy as the northwesterly jetstream descends southward into
General Announcements:
Check
out the images page for photos of some of this season’s avalanches.
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.
I will update this advisory next week with a general spring
statement.
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.
