Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center

US Forest Service Manti-La Sal National Forest

Introduction:

Good Morning! This is Max Forgensi with the USFS Manti-La Sal Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Friday, December 19th, 2003 at 7:30 A.M

General Conditions:

The high pressure is still sitting over our area, and probably will until our next chance of some measurable precipitation. Currently in Moab it is 16F under clear skies and winds light out of the WSW. Up at the Geyser Pass Trailhead, the SNOTEL site reads a temperature of 31.5F and 23.4” of snow at the stake. Pre-Laurel Peak has a temperature of 31F and has the winds clocked at an average of 7 mph out of the SSE, gusting to 12. There is still three feet of snow at our Gold Basin snow stake, although if this warm weather keeps up, we are going to continue to see some significant settlement. I cannot believe how warm it is up in the mountains at 7:00 in the morning. The road up to the GPTH is plowed really well, although those ditches are still catching vehicles. The stains they are leaving on the side of the road point to some hard manual labor, so be careful.

Mountain Weather:

Today: Partly Cloudy. High near 35. Winds 8 mph out of the SE

Tonight: Partly Cloudy. Low near 14. Winds 7-11 mph out of the S.

Saturday: 30% chance of measurable precipitation after 5 P.M. Mostly Cloudy. Winds 11 mph out of the SSW. High near 35.

Best chance for measurable precipitation is for Sunday. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Avalanche Conditions:

While going out to work on the Weather Station yesterday, I met a nice couple from Colorado. As luck would have it, one of them works at a meteorological station and is very hand with Campbell Weather Stations. They were eager to help and excited to have someone to show them around a bit. And I learned a couple of things about the weather station we have. We also were able to see widespread surface hoar development in the 9,600’ to 10,800’ range. It is definitely being persistent in shaded (N) aspects and out of the wind. Will it get buried? Only time will tell.

But what is our main concern out there today? Yesterday, I saw some signs of instability, cracking on the surface of the snow. These were found as far down as the Geyser Pass Road and up at tree line as well. These were observed on N-W aspects. The warm weather has definitely left a sun crust on SE-SW aspects. Be careful while skiing these aspects, the conditions could change quite rapidly. For today, I am going to leave the avalanche danger at MODERATE in areas at or above tree line that has been wind loaded and on slopes steeper than 35 degrees, NE-W. The rest of the areas I am going to rate as LOW. This is due to the warm temps and settlement of the last precipitation event.

Nordic and Skate Skiing:

Some snowmobilers were out yesterday, making it time to head out with your Nordic and skating gear! The track is getting wider all of the time. For those of you who are skate skiers out there, drop a line and tell me if you liked the conditions or not.

Public Announcements:

We still need volunteers and observers! Call us at the office for more info, 259-7155 for more info, or 636-3363 after hours. Get ready for our avalanche awareness courses coming in January. Check the education page for a course near you.

Word of the Day:

The link above hopefully shows what surface hoar looks like. This event is very important to monitor. Also known for being “loud powder” while skiing it, when it becomes buried, it becomes very difficult to detect and bonds poorly to other snow layers.