Wasatch Cache National Forest

In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, and Utah State Parks

 

The Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

 

Avalanche advisory

Sunday, April 13, 2003

Good Morning.  This is Bruce Tremper with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the Wasatch Range.  Today is Sunday, April 13, 2003, and it’s about 7:30 in the morning.

 

Current Conditions:

Today is probably another good day to get your taxes done.  At elevations above about 9,000’ the snow will probably be icy enough to loosen your fillings, at least until things soften up a bit around mid day.  Below 9,000’ there are various kinds of breakable crusts and mushy snow.  Well, as we say, the snow may be poor, but at least it will be cloudy, windy and possibly dusty.  Actually, the best part of today is that this will be the last morning avalanche advisory of the season.  Until about the end of April, we will update this advisory in the afternoon.   This means that I don’t have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning until next November, which I think is quite a reason to celebrate.  Now, I can sleep in to my usual 5:30 in the morning, every single day if I want.  Yahoo!

 

Temperatures this morning are about 3 degrees colder than yesterday at this time.  The 11,000’ temperatures are 30 degrees this morning, it’s 35 degrees at 10,000’ and 40 degrees at 8,000’.  The day time highs yesterday were 50-60 degrees at 8,000’ and 40-45 above 10,000’.  The day time highs today should be about 5 degrees cooler.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The wet avalanches were fairly well behaved yesterday and today the only places I’m still a bit worried about wet sluffs and wet slabs are below about 8,500’ where there is only a very shallow refreeze of the snow surface.  If you get pile of snow moving down the hill, it might gouge down to deeper layers or the ground, making a larger avalanche.   Also, the warm temperatures these past few days tend to make the snow “glide” as we call it, even at upper elevations.  This means it moves slowly along the ground, kind of like a glacier.  Glide happens mainly on steep rock slabs such as in upper Broad’s Fork and Stairs Gulch.  Once again, today would not be a good day to spend very much time underneath big, steep slopes, especially ones with glide cracks. Tomorrow, as temperatures cool, the avalanche hazard from wet slides should decrease, but with expected new snow, the avalanche danger from dry, new snow should increase.  If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

 

Bottom Line (SLC, Park City, Ogden and Provo Area Mountains):

Today the avalanche danger is MODERATE on all slopes below about 8,500’.  It’s also MODERATE on and below steep slopes with glide cracks.  The avalanche danger is mostly LOW at elevations above about 9,500’ with a frozen snow surface unless the snow has glide cracks.

 

Western Uinta Mountains: Click Here

Logan – call 435-797-4146 or Click Here.

 

Mountain Weather:

Today, ridge top winds will increase and blow 20-30 from the southwest with 10,000’ temperatures in the low to mid 40’s and 8,000’ temperatures in the mid low to mid 50’s.  For the extended forecast: One certain way to make it snow is to end our morning advisories for the season.  Sure enough, tomorrow I’m expecting a cold front around mid day and it should snow off and on until about Wednesday morning.  This could give us a foot or more of snow, but the snow looks like it will be more on the dense side with temperatures in the mid 20’s.  Then it looks like a break on Wednesday with another weaker shot of snow on Thursday.

 

General Information:

Wasatch Powderbird Guides will not be flying today.  For more information call 801-742-2800.

 

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.

 

Ethan Greene will update this advisory some time Monday afternoon.

 

Thanks for calling!

________________________________________________________________________

  

 

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm