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Cache National Forest
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Avalanche advisory
Monday,
March 31, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Ethan Greene with the
Current Conditions:
Under clear skies
temperatures dipped to about 30 degrees at both eight and ten thousand feet. In the
The snow surface is frozen in
most areas this morning. You can still find
some soft settled and recycled powder on northerly aspects in mid and upper
elevation areas. Otherwise expect a mix
of supportable and breakable sun and wind layers depending your aspect and
elevation.
Avalanche Conditions:
The March sun zapped the snow
surface yesterday at most elevations.
There were lots of reports of roller balls and wet surface snow, but I only
heard about a few avalanches. All of
these avalanches occurred on steep sun exposed slopes and only involved the
surface snow. Today I expect to see
similar conditions. We are starting out
a little warmer this morning, but I expect some high clouds to build during the
day.
As you’re moving through the
backcountry today pay attention to your aspect and elevation. Look for signs of increasing wet slide
activity such as roller balls and point release avalanches starting near rocks
or on steep sun exposed slopes. If you
see any of these signs or if you’re sinking into the snow more than about 8
inches it’s time to get off of and out from under steep sun exposed slopes.
We are in the middle of a
decent warm up and rapid warming events can cause our buried weak layer to
become more sensitive. It has been over
a week since we have seen any deep slab avalanches in the backcountry, but
there remains an isolated chance of triggering a slide that will break down
into the deeper layers.
Bottom Line (SLC,
This morning, the avalanche
danger is generally LOW. With daytime heating, the danger of wet
sluffs and wet slabs will rise to MODERATE and may rise to CONSIDERABLE on and below steep sun exposed
slopes. There remains an isolated chance
of triggering an avalanche that breaks into deep, old snow layers on steep
slopes above about 9,500’, and this danger may also increase with warming.
Mountain Weather:
The ridge of high pressure,
currently over the
General Information:
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.
Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: