Wasatc h
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
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is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
Avalanche advisory
Friday,
January 31, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Tom Kimbrough with the
Current Conditions:
This January heat wave continues
with overnight temperatures barely below freezing even at 10,000 feet. Although winds have dropped off a little this
morning, they were blowing strongly from the west yesterday and for much of the
night. At the higher elevations the
turning and riding conditions yesterday weren’t too awful but below about 8,000
feet, the snow was really sloppy.
I checked some records this morning: This January we got third place for low
monthly snow totals. January 1961 had
only 1” at Alta. January 1945 had 19
inches. This year we got 26 inches. In the valley this is the second warmest
January on record. January 1953 had a
mean temperature of 39 degrees. This
year it was 38 degrees.
Avalanche Conditions:
Avalanche activity yesterday
was confined to the surface snow at higher elevations with soft slabs breaking
up to about 8 inches deep on steep slopes where the strong winds were drifting
this week’s bit of fresh snow. Some of
these slides released naturally from cornice falls and a couple were human
triggered, one in the Powder Mountain backcountry near Ogden and one in Mill-D
north. Cornices were building out and
were very sensitive along windy ridges. The
soft slabs were also quite sensitive in places and were breaking wide, up to a couple
of hundred feet. Fortunately, they were
also rather shallow, mostly about 3 to 6 inches deep.
The snow conditions yesterday
were distinctly different on either side of the freezing level, which varied
between about 8,000 and 9,000 feet.
Below this line the snow was wet but fairly solid, although I was able
to push off a few shallow loose snow sluffs.
Above the freezing line the dry snow was drifting and reacting as
sensitive soft slabs. Thus the avalanche
danger increased rather suddenly with elevation and may have been CONSIDERABLE above
10,000 feet along wind exposed ridges.
There are photos and a crown
profile of Tuesday’s Square Top slide on the web at www.avalanche.org, click on
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger is MODERATE above 9,000 feet
(8,000 –
Western Uintas – call 1-800-648-7433 or click here for
weekend and holiday forecasts.
Mountain Weather:
Skies will be mostly sunny
today but with high clouds. High temperatures
will be near 40 degrees at 8,000 feet and in the mid thirties at 10,000. Ridge top winds will be 10 to 20 mph from the
west. On Saturday clouds and wind will
increase ahead of a hopefully decent storm arriving Saturday night.
General Information:
Wasa
The Friends of the Utah
This 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: