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Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of
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Avalanche ADVISORY
Wednesday, December 08,
2004 7:30 Am
Good
morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Yesterday
morning, the winds howled from the southwest with hourly averages of 40,
gusting to 50 or 60. The winds backed
off in the afternoon and with more snow overnight. The 24-hour snow totals are around a foot in
most of the Wasatch Range with ˝ inch to one inch of water weight, but selected
areas got hammered with over two inches of water weight, such as Sundance
Resort and
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday
morning’s very strong winds sand blasted most of the above-tree line terrain
and made some localized, sensitive wind slabs.
For instance, yesterday morning, skiers remotely-triggered a wind slab
on Tri County Peak near the Park City Resort 2-4 feet deep and 100 feet
wide. The new snow and wind drifted snow
landed on top of weak layers of faceted snow and surface hoar, which formed
during the clear weather this past couple weeks. Yesterday morning’s wind slabs are now hidden
by last night’s snow, making them nearly impossible to see. They will look smooth and rounded, feel hard
and sometimes sound hollow like a drum. Also, be especially suspicious of steep,
breakovers in down off the ridges in traditionally more wind sheltered areas
especially in areas that got a lot of new snow overnight.
Finally,
I’m expecting more snow this afternoon and tonight along with very strong winds
from the southwest to west. This should
push the avalanche danger one notch higher on scale. We will likely issue
and avalanche warning for the
Bottom Line (
The
avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees,
especially with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Considerable means human triggered slides are
probable and natural slides are possible.
Avalanche danger will likely rise to HIGH tonight and on Thursday. If you want LOW danger terrain, stay on slopes less than 30
degrees and out from underneath steeper slopes.
In
places which received more than a foot of new snow—such as
Mountain Weather:
With
a slight break this morning, I’m expecting another foot of snow this afternoon
and overnight. But the big news is that
the winds will blow hard from the southwest switching to the northwest by
morning. We’re expecting winds of around
60 mph with higher gusts. Adding insult
to injury, temperatures will be warmer, so this will likely push the avalanche
danger to HIGH. Today, ridge top temperatures will be near 20
degrees and 8,000’ temperatures will be in the mid to upper 20’s. For the extended forecast, we should be back
to partly cloudy skies for Friday and a ridge building over us for the weekend.
Remember that UDOT may conduct avalanche control operations above
the highway in Little Cottonwood Canyon at any time and will likely do so on
Thursday morning. For more information,
call 801-742-2927 or 801-742-2033.
I will be teaching an avalanche awareness class on Thursday evening
at 7:00 pm for the Wasatch Mountain Club at the Mt. Olympus Presbyterian Church
at 3900 S. and 2300 E.
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.
Evelyn
Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 Thursday morning, and thanks for
calling.
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