In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah
Sunday,
April 13, 2003
Good Morning. This is Bruce Tremper with the
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
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,
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.
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: