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Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, and
Utah State Parks
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Good morning, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
The
Current Conditions:
A pretty good spring
storm! It continued to snow off and on
for most of the day yesterday, with only a trace or so reported overnight. Across the range, storm totals for the Ogden
area mountains were about a foot, the Park City areas about 16”, the
Cottonwoods received 16-22”, and the Provo area mountains about 6”. As of
Warm afternoon temperatures, greenhousing, and some flashes of sunlight likely resulted
in some crusting of the mid and low elevation snow surfaces, but upper
elevation shady aspects will be a good bet for turning and riding conditions
today.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday’s storm produced
very sensitive sluff and soft slab avalanches in the new snow, with some
naturals reported in the upper Tri-canyon area.
Most of these were running either on the older snow surfaces or on
density inversions a few inches into the new snow. All were running fast and far, enough to take
someone for a nasty ride. Also of
interest was control work in the
While much of the new snow
instability has probably settled out, there may still be some sensitive soft
slabs to watch out for on steep slopes at the upper elevations. For today,
backcountry travelers will want to be on the lookout for changing weather
conditions and the potential for a rising hazard. For the afternoon, warming temperatures,
combined with greenhousing, and some time of sunlight
will likely produce wet activity on the sunny aspects, and at the mid and low
elevation northerly aspects. On another
front, due to convective nature of today’s precipitation, snow amounts will
vary widely over the range.
Accumulations may start to add up, where the hazard may rise
accordingly. Of course, if winds pick up
to be greater than forecasted, there’s plenty of snow available to create
sensitive wind drifts. At the low
elevations, it may be possible to trigger wet slabs on steep, shallow slopes.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is MODERATE
on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees.
There remains a MODERATE danger of
triggering a deep, dangerous hard slab avalanche in steep terrain, especially
in thinner snowpack areas.
(Ogden Area
and Western Uinta Mountains)
Same as
(
The
avalanche danger is MODERATE.
Mountain Weather:
Today
will be mostly cloudy with showery convective precipitation alternating with
some sun by afternoon. 1-4” are
possible, accompanied by light westerly winds.
8000’ highs will be near 30 degrees, with 10,000’ temperatures near
20. The week looks uneventful with no
storms projected on the longer range models.
General Information:
Wasatch
Powderbird Guides will be possibly flying in the American Fork drainage
today. For more information call
521-6040 ext. 5280.
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 [email protected], or you can fax an observation to
801-524-6301.
For
more detailed snow, avalanche, and mountain weather information,
call 364-1591. We’ll have the
line updated by around
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.
I
will update this advisory by
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: