In partnership with: The Friends of the
Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of
Comprehensive Emergency Management,
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Avalanche INFORMATION
Monday, November 08,
2004 6:30 pm
Good
afternoon, this is Drew Hardesty with the
Current Conditions:
After
a week of high pressure, we’re now feeling the effects of the first of a few
weather disturbances to bring rain and snow showers to the mountains. The good news is that some weather stations
are reporting of up to a half inch of water.
The bad news is that the rain/snow line has been around 9500’. With the center of the first cutoff Low to
the south and west of us, ridgetop winds have been out of the southeast,
blowing in the 20-30mph range, gusting to 50.
Snow surface conditions have taken a turn for the worse, and no doubt
you’ll find sloppy or snow-on-sloppy conditions everywhere but on upper
elevation north through easterly aspects.
Avalanche Conditions
No
news is good news and we’ve had little to report as things have quieted down
since early last week. We’ve kept an eye
on the development of both surface hoar and recrystalized snow on the upper
elevation shady slopes in the past week, but suspect that the winds, warming
temperatures and rain showers have started to stall or decay these layers. We’ll have to stay tuned. So as the rain/snow line lowers to just
below 8000’ tonight and tomorrow, any new snow is likely to bond well to the
old snow surfaces, with the possible exception of the highest elevation shady
slopes. The trick will be to see how
much snow arrives and then falling back to your old bag of tricks in dealing
with new-snow-only instabilities. The
forecasted strong southerly winds tonight and tomorrow are likely to drift what
snow falls overnight, so you might want to temper the ‘ski it if it’s white’
mentality while we see how this storm pans out.
And lastly, without a refreeze tonight, we lose our window in the
morning to avoid any rain-induced wet activity on the sunny aspects and mid-
elevations. The danger will likely be
greater at the higher elevations in the
As
a reminder, the unopened ski areas are not doing control work, and are just as
dangerous as the backcountry.
Mountain Weather:
Essentially
taking the table scraps from these southerly storms, we may pick up a couple
inches tonight and then a few more tomorrow.
The winds should be out of the southeast and strong tonight and into the
morning before quieting down and veering to the west and then northwest. 8000’ highs will be in the mid to upper
thirties on Tuesday with 10,000’ temps in the mid-twenties. The second cutoff Low should bring more
precipitation on a southerly track by later in the week, with another storm
lined up for Sunday/Monday.
If
you are getting out, drop us a line or an email with any reports or
observations from the backcountry. You
can leave us a message at 524-5304 or 1 800-662-4140. Email us at [email protected],
or send 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.
Thanks
for calling.
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