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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Good morning, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
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 (
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 |
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.
_____________________________________________________________________________
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