Wasatch
Cache National Forest
In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County,
and Utah State Parks
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Avalanche advisory
FRIday, FEBRUARY 15, 2002 4:00 PM
NEW!
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this forecast e-mailed to you each day, click here.
Good afternoon, this is Bruce
Tremper with the
Current Conditions:
I hope you enjoyed the
beautiful, sunny day in the mountains today because we will probably have more
cloudy or snowy conditions for the next several days. As far as the snow surface conditions, most
of the Olympic visitors must be wondering what’s up with our license plates. Right now, at least in the backcountry, we
have the Greatest old, tired, abused, wind-and-sun-damaged
Snow on Earth. Yes, you can still find
some soft, settled, recrystallized snow on the
surface that could pass for real powder.
You can find it on lower to mid elevation, north facing, wind sheltered areas—places where most people wouldn’t think
to go. The groomed runs
at the mostly-empty, non-venue resorts are a good bet and so is
snowmobiling.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday
morning, quite strong west and northwest wind formed sensitive, hard and soft
slabs and cornices along the mid and upper elevation terrain. The fresh drifts are mostly shallow about 3-6
inches deep, with a few up to about a foot deep along the highest ridges. The shallow drifts were easy to trigger on
steep slopes yesterday but they should stabilize out quickly today. But still, be alert for cracking in the new
snow, an indication that they are still cranky.
We
feel obligated to mention that there could still be a slight chance of
triggering a deeper hard slab avalanche.
Although this problem is very isolated to only a very few, mostly steep,
slopes, the consequences of triggering one could be quite serious.
Probably
a more important concern right now is the future. All the clear skies this past couple weeks
has created no lack of very weak snow both on the surface and in deeper layers
in the snowpack. Also, the sun and wind
has similarly created no lack of slick sun and wind crusts in exposed
areas. In other words, when we get a significant
load of new snow on top we could go from low danger to high danger in a hurry. As our weather pattern changes for next week,
we will need to keep a close eye on this.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is MODERATE today on any slope steeper than about 35
degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. On other slopes, the danger is isolated or LOW.
(
Mostly
the same general conditions as in the SLC mountains.
(
Mostly
the same general conditions as in the SLC mountains.
Mountain Weather:
We
should have clear skies again tonight but some high and mid elevation clouds on
Saturday. Sunday, we have a storm diving
south of us, which will continue to give us clouds but not much snow. More interesting weather looks like it will
arrive on Monday and Tuesday with a good chance of snow in the mountains. It’s too early to talk about amounts, but
stay tuned as it approaches. In the mean
time, ridgetop temperatures will be around 25 degrees
with ridgetop winds 15 mph from the southwest. 8,000’ temperatures should be in the low 20’s
tonight and the upper 30’s on Saturday.
General Information:
During
the Olympics, we will issue both morning and afternoon advisories. We’ll use the 364 -1591 line for more
detailed or additional avalanche information.
To
report backcountry snow and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or
trigger an avalanche, you can leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140. Or you can e-mail an
observation to uacobs@avalanche .org, or you can fax
an observation to 801-524-6301.
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides will not be flying during the Olympics.
We
have a new icon-based,
short advisory posted each day at www.avalanche.org. We would appreciate any feedback on this new
product.
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.
The
ever-popular Evelyn Lees will update this advisory Saturday morning.
Thanks
for calling!
_____________________________________________________________________________
For more detailed weather
information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm