In partnership
with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public
Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management,
For photos of avalanches and
avalanche activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/photos_03-04.htm (Updated
3/25)
Photos sent in by observers
throughout the season visit: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html (Updated
4/2)
For a list of backcountry avalanche
activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated
3/31)
Avalanche INFORMATION - afternoon update
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 6:00 pm
Good afternoon, this is Drew
Hardesty with the
Current
Conditions:
If you’re getting this
information Tuesday night, you’ll have a head start to swap out your warm wax
for cold and floppy sun hat for neck gaiter. All the weather models are pointing toward a
strong cold front that should arrive mid morning on Wednesday accompanied by
periods of heavy snow. It’ll be a relief
from today’s mountain temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s - ridgetop temps should
plummet to the high teens/low twenties by tomorrow afternoon.
Avalanche Conditions:
The past few days of intense
heat and calm winds produced the usual wet activity, including a couple wet
slab pockets pulling out above the old melt freeze crust. But like last week, the cold temps will put a lid
on the wet activity as we change gears to new dry snow avalanches and sensitive
wind slabs. It’s likely that the new
snow will bond well with the old snow surfaces, but presuming snowfall rates
have bursts of intensity, avalanches will run within the new snow. The bad news is that the new snow is expected
to be accompanied by moderate to strong winds out of the northwest that should
eventually veer to the north and then east by late Thursday. If we get 6” accompanied by these winds, wind
slabs will be localized and pockety; if we pick up 6-12” or more, look for
things to be more sensitive and widespread. Natural activity may be possible. The bulk of the precip
should arrive the central Wasatch by Wednesday through
early Thursday. As always, be alert for
changing conditions, haul your rescue gear back out of the closet and don’t
slack on solid backcountry protocol. Last
week’s flashback to winter had its share of sizeable avalanches and close
calls.
Lastly, remember that except
for Snowbird, all of the ski areas are closed – therefore, you’ll need to treat
your favorite resort runs as the backcountry.
Mountain Weather:
By now you’ve got the big picture on the storm, but
the devil’s in the details. Strong southwesterly prefrontal winds should
kick up tonight through tomorrow morning where gusts could reach into the 60’s
or more. Tonight’s 8000’ temperatures
will be in the mid-thirties with 10,000’ lows dropping to the around 40. 20-30 mph winds are expected post frontal as
the flow shifts northwest by midmorning Wednesday. At this point, the models are not in
agreement on where the trof forms a closed Low after the
main trof moves through tomorrow, but showers can be
expected through Thursday. Areas that
should receive the lion’s share are the central and southern
Backcountry
snow and avalanche information is still useful to us. So if you’re still getting out and see
anything of interest, leave us a message at 524-5304, 1 800-662-4140, drop us
an email at [email protected], or a fax
to 524-6301. The information in this
advisory is from the US Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its
content. This advisory describes general
avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.
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