Provo Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Brett Kobernik

BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)


Danger Rose Tutorial

The avalanche danger starts out LOW and will quickly rise to MODERATE as the daytime heating occurs. What will win out today; scorching temps that may produce natural activity or strong winds that will keep things in check. Don’t hang around out there to find out is my recommendation.


CURRENT CONDITIONS

It was a balmy night overnight with warmer temperatures than the previous night. Temperatures ranged from the mid 30s to mid 40s. Southerly winds are showing signs of increasing with some gusts near 50 along the most exposed locations and gusting in the teens along the 9000 foot ridges. Despite the warm temperatures, clear skies should have helped produce a shallow refreeze of the snow surface. I suspect this won’t last long today. The snow surface was a mixed bag of conditions with frozen goat heads to very smooth textures. There was colder dense loose snow in the morning and sticky slop in the afternoon. I did find a fresh drift that was almost a foot deep that was not sensitive. Some ski areas were closing terrain early due to the heat on Friday.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
      Over the next 10 hours.

Heat related avalanches are the main concern today. This includes the possibility of a deep slab release especially in thin rocky terrain. The winds should help counteract this issue today, however, it’s best to plan on exiting the mountains early to minimize risk. The truth is, we don’t really know if there are going to be heat related avalanches today but there are a number of indicators that point to them. Very warm temperatures for a couple of consecutive days combined with a weak snowpack structure that has depth hoar near the ground are the red flags I’m looking at.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

Mostly clear skies, record warm temperatures and strong southerly winds are in store for today. We should see 8000 foot temperatures near 60 and near 50 along the ridges. Southerly winds will increase as the day goes on and we could see gusts to 70 along the highest most exposed terrain. An unimpressive storm will move in tonight producing snow through a good portion of Sunday. This will cool temperatures into the low 20s. Winds will back off Sunday morning. It’s looking like a 2 to 4 inch event for most locations.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry - especially if you are adjacent to a ski area – please call the following teams to alert them to the slide and whether anyone is missing or not. Rescue teams can be exposed to significant hazard when responding to avalanches, and do not want to do so when unneeded. Thanks.

Salt Lake and Park City – Alta Central (801-742-2033)

Ogden – Snowbasin Patrol Dispatch (801-620-1017)

Provo – Sundance Patrol Dispatch (801-223-4150)

Dawn Patrol Forecast Hotline, updated by 05:30: 888-999-4019 option 8.

Twitter Updates for your mobile phone http://utahavalanchecenter.org/twitter)

Daily observations are frequently posted by 10 pm each evening.

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UDOT canyon closures UDOT at (801) 975-4838

Wasatch Powderbird Guides does daily updates about where they'll be operating on this blog http://powderbird.blogspot.com/.

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We will update this forecast tomorrow morning. Thanks for calling.


This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done.  This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.


This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.