Wasatc h
Cache National
Forest
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: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, click HERE.
Avalanche
advisory
mONDAY, January 5,
2004 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Drew Hardesty with the
For photos
of avalanches and avalanche phenomenon, click HERE.
For a list of backcountry avalanche activity, click HERE.
Current Conditions:
Overnight, the mountains picked up another 4-6” of light density snow and as of 6am, it’s still snowing. Perhaps more importantly, the winds have climbed steadily since the evening, averaging 20-30mph from the west, with gusts near 50. Temperatures remain cold and are still in the single digits. Snow surface conditions will range today from soft powder in protected areas to new wind drifts off the ridgelines and other lee terrain.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday the avalanche activity was relegated to minor sluffing and shallow soft slabs less than 6” deep, but today will be a different matter. What was a foot and a half of 4% density along with this morning’s additional snowfall is easily being blown around and will make for sensitive new wind slabs on steep terrain. Reports from personnel in the canyons this morning indicate that drifting is even reaching down into the drainages and in other unlikely areas. And so it’s not surprising that earlier this morning, a backcountry party in upper Little Cottonwood was reporting that the new 6-18”drifts are quite sensitive and can be triggered from a distance.
Bottom Line for the Wasatch Range,
including the
The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on slopes approaching 35 degrees
with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches will be
probable. In sheltered terrain, the
danger is MODERATE.
Mountain Weather:
Today, we’ll see continued snowfall into the morning, with clearing skies by the afternoon. Winds will remain westerly and blow in the 15-25 mph range. 8000’ temps will peak in the low teens, with 10,000’ temps in the single digits. The storm will move east with high pressure moving in for the late afternoon and tomorrow. A warming trend should push ridgetop temps by twenty degrees by tomorrow afternoon with another storm on tap for Wednesday.
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.
|
3-Day Table |
3-Day Graph |
7-Day Table |
General
Information:
Weather permitting, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides will have a ship in American Fork today. Yesterday they flew in AF and in upper Lamb’s canyon.
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 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