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 Andrew McLean with the
We’re giving two free avalanche awareness talks this week – one this evening at the Salt Lake REI and the second on Thursday, the 18th, at the Sandy REI. Both start at 7pm.
The Provo Department of Transportation will be
sighting in their howitzers this morning between 10:00am and 1:00pm. The
Current Conditions:
There’s a plethora of turning and riding conditions
today, most of them ranging from good to incredible. With 8 – 12” of sub 7% blower powder
above 7,000’, you can’t go wrong. The trailbreaking can be heartbreaking though, with lots of fresh
snow to move out of the way, but the harder it is going up, the better it will
be going down. After occasional flurries
yesterday, it looks like the storm has played itself out and today we are in
for some clear weather, warming temperatures and light winds.
Avalanche Conditions:
Overnight temperatures in the negative digits, as well as yesterday’s scattered clouds, have not only preserved the snow quality, but even improved it. Instead of consolidating into a slab, the upper snowpack has undergone diurnal recrystallization, which makes if feel like it is drying out and becoming even lighter. However, test pits are showing results firmly in the ambiguous gray zone, with easy sheers on the buried brown crust that resulted from the desert sand being blown up here a few days ago. The avalanche danger will vary directly with elevation and how much windloading the slope has received in the last 48 hours. As has been the case for most of this season, the higher elevation, wind exposed areas have compounded loading, whereas the lower elevation wind sheltered areas do not. For more detailed and early morning information on yesterday’s avalanche activity, call (801) 364-1591.
Bottom Line (
In isolated high, steep, wind exposed areas, the avalanche danger will be CONSIDERABLE. On mid elevation slopes steeper than 35 degrees it will be MODERATE, and on all other aspects and elevations, it is LOW.
Click here
for a photo of a small human triggered slide in the Provo area
mountains on 12/15/03.
Mountain Weather:
Today looks like a great day to get out in the mountains, with the 8,000’ temperatures expected to be just below 30 degrees and mostly clear, sunny skies. The winds will be light from the N/NW and becoming more westerly late in the day. A high pressure system is building over the area today with a minor trough moving into the region tonight and Wednesday. There is a slight chance that this fast moving system will produce some precipitation in northern Utah tomorrow, but the next significant snow doesn’t look like it will be here for another five days.
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 will be starting up their operations today and plan
on flying in the Sliver Fork, Days Fork and Cardiff Fork areas.
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.
Bruce
Tremper 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