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
Tuesday,
April 01, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Tom Kimbrough with the
Current Conditions:
This spring weather will make
fools of us all. Yesterday I hit a pa
Yesterday there was still a
little settled powder on northerly aspects at upper elevations but most of that
may be cooked this morning with widespread breakable crusts and sloppy snow the
order of the day. If there are any supportable
crusts this morning, they won’t last long today if there is much solar radiation
coming through the high clouds.
Avalanche Conditions:
The damp snow was moving
yesterday with slope cuts on steep slopes at all elevations and there were a
few roller balls and point releases that widened out and started pushing a fair
amount of snow but all the slides that I saw only involved the surface
layers. Not that you would want to get
pushed around by or, heaven forbid, buried by that sort of wet cement. Without an overnight freeze, the wet slide
conditions may be worse today. In our
favor will be the strong winds, which will help cool the snow surface and high
clouds that will reduce the solar heating.
Be alert for signs of
increasing wet slide activity like roller balls and point release avalanches
starting near rocks or on steep 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 the steep terrain.
With the current warm
temperatures, the weak layers buried deep in the snow pack may again become sensitive. Although it has been over a week since we
have seen any deep slab avalanches in the backcountry, with the warm
temperatures of the last couple of days the possibility of natural deep
releases is increasing. These slides
could be large, perhaps involving the entire snow pack, and very dangerous. Places like Broad’s Fork and Stairs Gulch
where the snow is lying on steep and smooth rock slabs may be especially dangerous.
Finally there may be a few
fresh wind drifts at the highest elevations where there may still be a little
dry snow to blow around.
Bottom Line (SLC,
This morning, the avalanche
danger is MODERATE. With daytime heating, the danger of wet
sluffs and wet slabs may rise to CONSIDERABLE on and below steep slopes. There is also a MODERATE danger of both natural and triggered wet
slab avalanches breaking into deep, old snow layers on all steep slopes.
Mountain Weather:
There is a High Wind
Warning in effect for 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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: