Wasatch
Cache National Forest
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Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County,
and Utah State Parks
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Avalanche advisory
Sunday, April 7, 2002 07:30 AM
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Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
The cool air finally straggled
into town yesterday evening, dragging a few clouds with it, but no snow. Overnight temperatures in the mountains are
below freezing, currently in the upper 20’s at most elevations. Combined with mostly clear skies, there
should be a decent surface refreeze this morning, over a mostly loose and damp
mid pack. Ridge top winds are light, averaging
10 to 15 mph from the northwest.
We are doing an early morning
corn report on the (801) 364-1581 line by
Avalanche Conditions:
With the cool air behind
schedule yesterday and often no more than thin clouds, the wet slide cycle continued,
with several decent wet loose slides being reported. Mid elevation, northerly facing slopes were the
most active, and once again debris piles were impressively deep from even small
wet sluffs.
While last nights cold
temperatures will have given the surface snow a good refreeze, they will not
have reached the mid and deeper snowpack.
These layers will remain damp, loose and weak. Today’s direct sun and warming temperatures will
rapidly soften the surface crusts. So the usual spring time early starts and early
finishes are advised. When the snow
crusts soften, it’s time to get off of and out from under steep slopes. Either change to a cooler aspect or choose
another sport for the rest of the day.
There is still a chance of deep
slab avalanches that may release naturally or be triggered by smaller wet
sluffs. This year’s snow pack contains
some very weak layers that formed in January, and is unusually susceptible to
this type of slide. While there are only
isolated places where these deep avalanches could occur today, the slides would
be large and dangerous. Avalanche activity would be most likely on and below
steep rocky areas, especially where glide cracks are visible.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is MODERATE
on and below all steep snow covered slopes today. Both human triggered
avalanches and natural avalanches possible. There remains a danger of full depth
avalanches releasing naturally, especially in very steep rocky terrain.
(
Same as
(
Same as
Mountain Weather:
A
drying northwest flow will remain over northern
General 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. We have a new avalanche and backcountry observation page that we’d like
to encourage folks to try out. It can be
found on our home website at avalanche.org. You can also fax an observation to
801-524-6301.
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.
Drew
Hardesty 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: