In
partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management,
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, visit: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16351h
For photos of avalanches and
avalanche phenomenon, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/photos_03-04.htm (Updated
3/16)
Photos sent in by observers
throughout the season visit: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html (Updated
3/12)
For a list of backcountry avalanche
activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated
3/9)
Early morning preliminary information by about 6:00 am: 801-364-1591
Avalanche advisory
Tuesday, March 16, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is Andrew McLean with the
Current Conditions:
After a breezy day yesterday, the winds picked up overnight and blew at a steady 15 – 30mph out of the W/NW with gusts into the 70’s. When combined with 10 hours of below freezing temperatures, we now have a nice, solid refreeze in most areas throughout the Wasatch. Today’s high clouds and continued strong winds will delay the corn cycle indefinitely, while the sheltered, shady aspects still have small pockets of powder.
Avalanche Conditions:
Warm days, cool nights and no new snow for over a week has significantly stabilized the snowpack. With firm early morning conditions, the chances of taking a long sliding fall are more likely than triggering an avalanche today. The strong winds will help to counteract the warm temperatures and keep the upper elevation snowpack firm. In mid and lower elevations during the heat of the day, there is still a chance of finding isolated pockets of wet, rotten snow. These will be most common in areas around rocks that have soaked up heat from the sun or in cirques with more reflective heat. Similar to cross loading from the wind, some ridgeline areas are receiving much more sunlight than others, which can create shallow, weak areas in the snowpack right next to deeper, stronger areas. If and when the temperatures heat back up, avoid any steep terrain where you are sinking into rotten snow up to your shins.
Bottom
Line for the Wasatch Range, including the
The avalanche danger is low on all upper elevation aspects. In lower elevations during the heat of the day, there will be a moderate danger of wet, loose slides.
Mountain Weather:
Strong winds out of the W/NW will continue
throughout the day with partly cloudy skies and 8,000’ highs just below 40
degrees. This northwest flow will
continue over northern
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides flew in American Fork yesterday and weather permitting; they will be in Snake Creek, American Fork and Cascade today.
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 Wednesday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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