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

 

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Avalanche advisory

MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2003   7:30 am

 

Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Monday, December 1st  2003, and it’s 7:30 a.m.  We will be giving two free avalanche awareness talks this week – one at the Salt Lake REI, Tuesday, December 2nd at 7 pm and one at Kirkham’s, Saturday, December 6th, at 7pm.

 

Current Conditions:

Under partly cloudy skies, mountain temperatures are slightly inverted, with upper elevation temps in the mid and upper thirties and rising.  Lower elevation areas in the drainages and basins are reporting temperatures in the twenties.  Winds are in the teens, with some of the more exposed wind stations in the 20-25mph range out of the southwest.   Snow surface conditions change significantly with elevation.  At the mid and low elevation areas, you’ll encounter breakable crusts that may soften by midday, while northerly slopes above about 9500’ have dense powder with a thin overlying crust that you can boss around.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

Minor wet activity was again the only action in the mountains yesterday. Today, you can throw sunny skies into the mix along with the poor refreeze and tropical mountain temperatures to hasten and increase the wet activity.  While I am not expecting wet slabs to release, be alert for wet sluffs to gain momentum and mass on the steeper slopes.  Best to avoid being knocked off your feet or machine or ending up in the bottom of a terrain trap with wet debris coming down on top of you.

 

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

The avalanche danger is LOW in all areas with the exception of a MODERATE danger of increasing wet activity today due to a lack of a decent refreeze, continued warm temps, and increased solar radiation. 

 

Mountain Weather:

We’ll see mostly sunny skies with continued warm mountain temperatures.  8000’ temps will get up into the mid-40’s, with 10,000’ temps rising to the mid and upper 30’s.  The winds will increase out of the southwest today into the 15-25mph range ahead of a weak storm arriving early tomorrow morning.  The front should produce a couple inches, but cool mountain temperatures off by about 10-15 degrees.  A ridge builds in behind the disturbance for Tuesday afternoon, with partly cloudy skies through the rest of the week.  The longer range models suggest another storm on tap for the weekend.

 

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. 

 

Andrew McLean will update this advisory on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for calling.

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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