Wasatc h
Cache National Forest
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Good Morning. This is Ethan Greene with the
Current Conditions:
Get out your grass skirt and
guava juice, because last night it was down right tropical in the mountains of
northern
The snow surface is a mix of
faceted snow and crusts. Yesterday I received
reports of good dust-on-crust turning conditions in upper elevation areas, and
nice loud powder turning in areas sheltered from the wind and sun.
Avalanche Conditions:
Today is going to be an
interesting day in the backcountry. The
backcountry snowpack is generally thin and weak. The new snow that fell late last week has
also faceted leaving the snow surface a mix of surface hoar, near-surface
facets, and a variety of wind and sun crusts.
Today the wind is going to blow and it’s going to rain! Temperatures should be cooling during the day
and I don’t expect much precipitation until the afternoon. However, you may want to pack your slicker
incase the precipitation starts in earnest before the colder air arrives.
With tropical temperatures
and rain in January, we are most certainly in the middle of an odd weather
event. If my numerical crystal ball is
correct, our avalanche conditions will not change significantly until after
sunset. However, today the most
important thing to remember is that odd weather events produce odd avalanches.
Bottom Line (SLC,
Today the avalanche danger is
probably LOW this
morning, but will be increasing during the day.
With strong winds and rain turning to snow the avalanche danger may rise
to MODERATE this
afternoon and could continue to rise overnight.
Mountain Weather:
Wind speeds and cloud cover
will increase today ahead of a fast moving Pacific Storm. Temperatures are quite warm this morning, but
I expect most areas will gradually cool during the day. High temperatures will be in the low 40’s at
8,000’ and low 30’s at 10,000’.
Southwest winds will increase in to the 25 mph range, but along the
highest ridgelines we could see sustained speeds in the 30 to 40 mph range this
afternoon. Precipitation will spread
south during the day. The rain/snow line
could be as high as 9,000’ today, but should drop to 7,000’ overnight. I expect an inch or two of snow could
accumulate by sundown and an additional 4 to 8 inches by Tuesday morning.
General Information:
Weather permitting,
Wasa
The Friends of the Utah
On Sunday February 2nd
there will be a fundraiser for the Wasa
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather
Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: