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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Good morning, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
Under a mild southwest flow, temperatures
in the mountains overnight were in the upper twenties and low thirties. With clear skies, we did get at least a
marginal refreeze of the snowpack overnight.
Winds have been in the 15-20 mph range. The clear skies this morning should give way
to mid and upper level cloud cover throughout the day. Surface crusts will soften with daytime
highs in the 50’s at 8000’. We are doing
an early morning corn report on the (801) 364-1581 line by
Avalanche Conditions:
While the increasing cloud
cover may stave off the direct shortwave heating of the snowpack, the warm
daytime highs and the potential for some greenhousing
will soften things up during the day. It
may be a guessing game at the highest elevations if you’re out and about, but the
low and mid-elevations will likely go from soft to sloppy by late
afternoon. Remember, when you’re sinking
in to your boot-tops or augering in with your sled,
it’s time to change your aspect or head off to the house. Below the refreeze at the low and
mid-elevations on the northern exposures, the snow remains damp, loose, and
generally unsupportable. On Sunday, heavy
explosive control work at the Canyons pulled out three wet slabs, with some
running to the ground. All were on the
north facing ski runs on the lower mountain below 8000’. One wet debris pile was reported to be 25’
deep, damming a creek in
While there are only isolated
places where deep slab 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. Full depth glide cracks have been observed in
upper Stairs and Broad’s Fork where the snow is underlain by smooth, rocky
slabs.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is LOW this morning, increasing to MODERATE by afternoon with daytime heating. Both human triggered avalanches and natural
avalanches will be possible.
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Mountain Weather:
We’ll
see an increase in cirrus and mid-level clouds today ahead of tomorrow’s weak
storm system. Winds will remain out of the
southwest in the 10-20 mph range. Highs
today will be near 50 at 8000’ and in the low 30’s at 10,000’. Tomorrow’s system will shower the mountains
with a projected rain/snow line starting at 8000’, lowering throughout the
day. Up to 6” may be possible at the
highest elevations. Drying
Thursday into the weekend.
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.
Bruce
Tremper 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: