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
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, click HERE.
Good morning, this is Andrew
McLean with the
We
will be giving two free avalanche awareness talks this week – one tonight at
the Salt Lake REI on 3900th South at 7 pm and one at Kirkham’s, Saturday,
December 6th, at 7pm.
Current Conditions:
Yesterday’s strong winds and airborne water droplets closed the final chapter on our stellar early season conditions. With more variety of crusts than a French bakery, good turns are getting harder to find in the mountains, but if you are willing to lower your standards and stretch your definition of “good snow” you can still find a bit of softness lurking in higher elevation, sheltered areas. As they say in the Northwest, “If you can’t drink it, it’s powder.” Currently, the 8,000’ temperatures are at a 24 hour low and hovering around 22 degrees. Today’s high is expected in the mid 30’s, with the winds dying down and shifting to the northwest.
Avalanche Conditions:
The good news is that the current conditions have put the avalanche activity into a holding pattern. Cooling winds and temperatures right around freezing yesterday and last night have consolidated the snowpack into a homogenous mass that is well bonded in place. Even the point releases and pinwheels of a few days ago have gone into remission. There were no reports of avalanche activity in the backcountry yesterday, although with ridgetop gusts of up to 70 mph, any loose snow was blown on to the lee side of ridgelines, creating wind loaded drifts that could be sensitive to a human trigger. While we are currently enjoying stable conditions at the expense of treacherous turns, direct sun or warmer temperatures could tip the scales into the wet slide zone. At lower elevations, or if the sun comes out in force, watch out for wet point release avalanches on steep slopes just below rock outcroppings.
Bottom Line (
There is a LOW chance of natural or human triggered avalanches in all
areas with the exception of a MODERATE danger on
higher elevation wind loaded slopes, especially in the
Mountain Weather:
The weak storm that was predicted just got even
weaker and has turned into a non event.
A slight cooling trend will continue through today and tomorrow, with
temperatures ranging from the mid teens at night to the mid 30’s during the day
at 8,000’. The winds should taper off,
shift to the west and be in the 20 mph range on the ridgetops. A weak system will move in by late Wednesday
evening and into Thursday morning with a slight chance of snow showers, and
then be followed by high pressure during the day. Starting on Friday, an increasing southwest
flow will precede a storm with our first chance of significant snow happening
next Sunday or Monday.
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.
Evelyn
Lees will update this advisory on Wednesday 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