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

The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

Avalanche advisory

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

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Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory. Today is Wednesday, November 27, 2002, and it’s 7:30 am.

Current Conditions:

Under clear skies, mountain temperatures are in the upper teens to low twenties this morning, and winds are from the northwest. While speeds are averaging less then 10 mph throughout most of the terrain, along the highest and most exposed ridges the winds have picked up into the 15 to 20 mph range.

Beggars can’t be choosy, so most people found the best in the 4 to 7” of snow the Salt Lake mountains received Sunday night. Turning conditions were most noticeably improved on the shady wind sheltered slopes where the new snow fell on a soft base. Elsewhere, it’s dust on a variety of supportable and breakable sun and wind crusts. The only decent snowpack is limited to the upper elevations, and even there it is only 18 to 30” deep. So if you’re getting out for the first time this holiday weekend, choose a high elevation trail head, take your rock boards and be alert for hidden rocks.

Avalanche Conditions:

Stiff east and northeast winds Monday blew the few inches of new snow into shallow drifts and wind slabs along the ridges. While these shallow wind slabs are now mostly stable, it may still be possible to trigger one on a steep slope. If you did get knocked off your feet, even a short ride could be dangerous with a multitude of rocks to hit.

Alternating direct sun and high thin clouds could heat up a variety of snow surfaces today, producing a few damp sluffs on steep slopes.

Bottom Line (SLC, Ogden, and Provo Area Mountains):

The avalanche danger is generally LOW today, with only a few isolated places where a person might be able to trigger a slide. The mostly likely place would a slope steeper than about 35 degrees with a recent deposit of wind drifted snow or with damp snow.

Mountain Weather:

A cool and mostly dry northeasterly flow will be over northern Utah today. Expect mostly sunny skies, with occasional patches of high thin clouds moving by. Ridge top winds will be from a northerly direction, averaging 15 to 25 mph along the highest ridges. It will be slightly warmer today, with high temperatures reaching into the low 30’s. This dry, cool weather pattern will continue Thursday and Friday, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the 30’s.

General Information:

UDOT in Little Cottonwood Canyon is sighting in the guns this morning and shooting from Tanners through Superior from 7-8 am. The road will be closed while they do this and stay off these slopes until the work is completed.

A great Christmas present this year for someone you love would be an avalanche beacon. If you want to know which one to buy, I’ve posted a couple recent tests of various brands of avalanche beacons on the web. Point your browser to www.avalanche.org and click on Salt Lake, then on Education. At the same location, you can find a complete list of avalanche talks and multi-day classes.

To report backcountry snow and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche, call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected] or fax 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.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 on Thanksgiving morning.

Thanks for calling!

________________________________________________________________________

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm