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
Sunday,
March 02, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Ethan Greene with the
Current Conditions:
Overnight under mostly to partly
cloudy skies, temperatures dropped below 10 degrees at both 8,000’ and
10,000’. The winds have been 10 mph or
less from the west and southwest. Storm
totals from yesterday are 4 to 8 inches of snow and about 0.3” water in the
This morning the old snow
surface is covered by some very nice and low density new snow and reports from
the backcountry indicate that the turning conditions are dreamy.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday was a classic
Today it will still be easy
to trigger sluff and some soft slab avalanches on all aspects, and I expect to
see natural avalanche activity on the steep sun exposed slopes. Most of these avalanches will limited to the
loose surface snow, but remember we still have several buried weak layers in
the snowpack. Although loose snow
avalanche are most dangerous in areas where they could push you off a cliff or
into a gulley, these slides could become large enough to trigger a more
dangerous deep slab avalanche. The
surface snow will be quite active on sun exposed aspects, so the danger will
rise as the day heats up. Avalanche
breaking into the deeper weak layers are possible on all aspects but most
likely on steep northwest through east facing terrain that has a thin weak
snowpack or that has avalanched previously in the season.
Bottom Line (SLC,
Today there is a MODERATE danger of
triggering a loose snow avalanche on any slope steeper than about 35
degrees. On sun exposed slopes the
danger may rise to CONSIDERABLE
with day time heating. In the afternoon,
traveling under steep sun exposed slopes is not advised. There is also a MODERATE danger of triggering a deep slab
avalanche on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees and above 9,000’. Today this danger is present on all aspects,
but deep slab avalanche are most likely on northwest, north, northeast, and
east facing slopes.
Note: the western Uinta Mountains have a CONSIDERABLE danger
above 10,000 feet and is significantly more dangerous than the Wasa
Mountain Weather:
The storm that brought snow
to the mountains yesterday has moved off to the southeast, and a ridge of high
pressure is building over the
General Information:
Wasa
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
please leave a message on our answer machine at (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
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: