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partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, To have
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Avalanche advisory
Friday, January 30, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is
Current
Conditions:
Yesterday was the first day of the big Outdoor
Retailer show in
Avalanche Conditions:
We’ve got a very complicated avalanche picture with two main problems today. First, the lung-clogging January drought created some very weak faceted snow on the snow surface on all the wind sheltered slopes that face the north and east quadrants of the compass as well as in basin bottoms and at lower elevations. Then it was buried by a foot of new snow, which was just enough weight to make the snow collapse as you traveled along, but not enough weight to create a widespread avalanche problem. These past few days, there have only been localized human triggered avalanches and most of them were less than a foot deep and generally soft enough to break at your feet instead of above you. In other words, it’s just teasing us along, teetering just back from the edge. As we add more weight on top of the weak layers this weekend, the avalanche potential will almost certainly rise. The avalanches will not only be more widespread, but they will be more dangerous. Today, and for the next few days, you should especially avoid steep slopes that face north and east, and especially slopes that did not get much traffic during the January drought. Also, avoid any slopes with recent wind deposits.
The second avalanche problem is the very warm temperatures and rain at lower elevations made lots of wet, loose sluffs, mostly below about 7,000’. This will continue this morning until temperatures cool down with the cold front later this afternoon and evening.
Bottom
Line for the Wasatch Range, including the
On all slopes steeper than 35 degrees that
face the north and east quadrants of the compass, the avalanche danger is moderate,
which means that human triggered avalanches are possible. There’s also a MODERATE danger on all steep slopes
with recent wind drifts and in terrain traps such as gullies. The avalanche danger will rise tonight and
through the weekend to at least CONSIDERABLE. Finally, there is a MODERATE
danger of wet sluffs at elevations below about 7,000’ but the activity should
end tonight when colder temperatures arrive.
Mountain Weather:
A strong cold front should arrive tonight, which will bring dramatically colder temperatures and 6 inches to a foot of snow by Saturday morning. In the mean time, today will be warm once again with ridge top temperatures in the mid 20’s and around freezing at 8,000’. Winds will pick up during the day and blow about 25-30 mph from the southwest later in the day. We should also have increasing clouds through the day and snow should begin late this afternoon and continue overnight. By morning, ridge top temperatures will drop to around 7 degrees and then down to zero by Saturday night. Lake effect snow showers should continue through the weekend. The extended forecast calls for perhaps three more pulses of precipitatin in the next week.
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not operate yesterday and today, weather permitting, they will fly in Silver, Days,
The Banff Film Festival, a benefit for the Friends
of the
The Friends of the
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 Saturday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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