Wasatch Cache National Forest

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

 

: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/

 

To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, click HERE.

 

Avalanche advisory

Friday, NOVEMBER 21, 2003   7:30 am

 

Good morning, this is Andrew McLean with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Friday, November 21, 2003, and it’s 7:30 a.m. 

 

Current Conditions:

Good news! After a few days reprieve, winter weather has kicked back in, with snow falling and temperatures dropping in the Logan area.  This is quickly spreading to the Salt Lake Valley where it has just started to snow.  Overnight temperatures across the Wasatch Mountains barely dipped below freezing last night.  There was a light wind out of the Southwest with ridge top gusts and no new snow.  This three day pattern of warm temperatures, high winds and overcast skies consolidated the snowpack into an excellent early season base.  Yesterday, the turning conditions ranged from carvable foam in the open bowls, to dense powder tucked away in sheltered areas.  With easy trail breaking, good coverage and supportable snow all the way down to 8,000’, you are only hitting rocks if you want to.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

These weather conditions have rapidly stabilized the snowpack from just a few days ago and it is now well cemented in place.  No avalanches have been reported in the last two days and yesterday there were no signs of instability in the backcountry.  The buried weak layers of a few days ago are well bonded in most places, although it still might be possible to trigger an avalanche on higher elevation, wind loaded slopes.  Avoid large cornices and thick looking pillows of snow just below the ridgelines.  If this storm delivers more snow and wind than expected, the avalanche hazard will increase.  As the old snow surface is warm, in theory, the new snow should bond well to it.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

Bottom Line (Salt Lake, Park City, Ogden and Provo area mountains):

The danger is LOW in most areas, with human trigger avalanches unlikely.  On isolated, steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow, there is MODERATE danger.  With new snow falling and more expected in the next 24 hours, the danger will rise accordingly.

 

Mountain Weather:

Snowfall has settled in for today, but the big, wet storm that was anticipated for this weekend has broken into a series of smaller, colder storms that will be spread out until Tuesday.  Temperatures will start to drop dramatically today with single digit lows expected by this evening.  Throughout the day, 2-3 inches of snow will fall with a light wind that will shift from the SW to the West.  Ridgetops will have high, gusty winds and a chance of lightning strikes.  There will be a slight break in the storm, and then on Saturday, snow squalls and 4-6 inches of snow are expected with some possible Lake Effect enhancements.  

 

 

3-Day Table

3-Day Graph

7-Day Table

Ogden Mountains

Ogden Mountains

Ogden Mountains

SLC Mountains

SLC Mountains

SLC Mountains

Provo Mountains

Provo Mountains

Provo Mountains

 

For specific digital forecasts for selected mountain areas from the National Weather Service, click the links below or choose your own specific location at the National Weather Service Digital Forecast Page:

 

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. 

 

Evelyn Lees will update this advisory Saturday morning.

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