In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche 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 Drew Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
The weather conditions for the past two days have
been a little mind blowing: freezing rain and rime on Saturday, southerly winds
yesterday that were enough to blow your socks off, and a foot or more of snow
overnight. Let’s not forget the lighting
and half the west desert that blew into the mountains with frontal passage yesterday
afternoon. Storm totals across the range
are 4” in the
Avalanche Conditions:
Reports from the backcountry and ski areas this morning indicate that the central Wasatch is going through a natural avalanche cycle with slides running on a variety of aspects and elevations. The 7-8% density snow is falling on a patchwork of underlying bed surfaces, from ¼” thick ice crusts, to thinner crusts to light density snow where the crusts have been eroded and blown away. I suspect the activity today will be equally varied and complex, but one thing’s for sure: the avalanche danger has certainly risen dramatically and natural and human triggered avalanches will be likely today. Test slopes and snow pits may not necessarily be indicative of the greater stability on the slope in light of the inconsistency of the underlying bed surfaces. In addition, yesterday’s and last night’s winds likely deposited drifts further down on the slope than usual and crossloaded many areas as well. While it’s likely the window of most natural activity will be early this morning, the danger of human triggered avalanches will be likely over the course of the day. For this morning and today, avoid being on or underneath slopes steeper than 35 degrees at the mid and upper elevations.
Bottom Line (
There is a generally HIGH danger of both natural and human triggered avalanches today in the central Wasatch. Those without good rescue or routefinding skills should avoid mountain travel today.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll see some lake-effect showers this morning that should dry out by midday or early afternoon. Winds will be 15-20 out of the northwest and temperatures will be in the single digits and teens. Ridging moves in later tonight and for the remainder of the week.
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:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides may fly into the American Fork drainage today for
recon work if given a good weather window.
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
Friends of the
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