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
Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
A strong, moist upper level
low will work its way across northern
Avalanche Conditions:
There are two avalanche
problems for today. The first is the new
wind drifts or wind slabs. On steep
slopes, I would expect many of these new wind drifts to break under the weight
of a person. Some of today’s new drifts will
be very sensitive, while others will be the more stubborn hard slabs. The hard wind slabs will allow you to get
partway down a slope before they break above you. Strong winds often load snow in unusual
places, further down slope and at lower elevations than one would normally
expect. It may be hard to detect which slopes
have wind drifts as they get hidden by the new snow.
The second problem is the more
deeply buried surface hoar layer. There
was another skier triggered avalanche yesterday in upper Big Cottonwood Canyon,
and once again the culprit was surface hoar, this time sitting on a sun crust. It was on a 35 to 38 degree easterly facing
slope at 9,700’. In both the Ogden and
Provo area mountains, areas of buried surface hoar extend from the ridges down
to about 8,000’. The pattern in the
central Wasa
Bottom Line (
Today, the avalanche danger
is CONSIDERABLE on all slopes steeper than 35
degrees, especially those with recent drifts of wind blown snow. Considerable means natural avalanches are
possible, and human triggered avalanches are probable. The avalanche danger is MODERATE on 30 to 35
degree slopes with recent drifts of wind blown snow. The avalanche danger may increase through out
the day if we get the additional wind and snow forecast, and the danger may
rise to HIGH this afternoon or
tonight.
Mountain Weather:
A snowy and very windy day is in store for the northern mountains. An additional 5 to 8 inches of snow is
expected today. Winds will gradually
shift from the southeast to the southwest today, and decrease from this morning’s
30 mph speeds into the 20 to 25 mph range this afternoon. Temperatures will remain in the low 20’s at
10,000’. Tonight, an additional 5 to 10” of snow is
possible, with moderate winds turning to the northwest after
General
Information:
If
you are getting into the backcountry, please give us a call and let us know what
you’re seeing, especially if you trigger an avalanche. You can leave a message at 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140. Or you can e-mail an
observation to uac@avalanche .org, or you can fax an
observation 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.
Thanks for calling!
_____________________________________________________________________________
For more detailed weather
information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm