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Avalanche advisory
Thursday, April 07,
2005
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees with the
Current Conditions:
Warm conditions continued overnight, with temperatures at the mountain stations
ranging from the low 30’s to the low 40’s this morning. The southerly winds are generally blowing in
the 15 to 20 mph range, with gusts into the 30’s. The mostly clear skies allowed for a shallow
refreeze of the snow surface, but the crusts will rapidly warm today and the
snow will be damp, sticky and sloppy. It
may be possible to find a few remnants of dry snow on steep, upper elevation, northerly
facing slopes.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, there were a moderate number of wet sluffs and slabs releasing with
the heat of the day, with the largest reported off the westerly facing slopes
of Timpanogos and Cascade Ridge. Activity
continued well into the evening, with at least one slide occurring after 6
pm. A glide avalanche was observed off
the rock slabs in Broads Fork,
and another small slide ran to the dirt on a lower elevation slope near Maybird gully. With one
last hot day in store, prepare for another round of wet slabs and sluffs. Any shallow refreeze of the snow surface will
be short lived, with the snow heating up rapidly. Some slides may break into deeper layers, more
glide avalanches will be possible today, and cornices could be getting
sensitive. The northerly facing slopes
may get the most active later this afternoon as the thin, high clouds move
in. So finish any backcountry travel
early, and if you’re out when the snow becomes wet and sloppy, stay off of and
out from under steep slopes of all aspects.
Bottom Line (
Most
areas have a LOW
avalanche danger this morning. The
danger will rapidly rise to MODERATE with daytime heating on and below steep slopes of
all aspects. In continuous steep
terrain, the danger may rise to CONDSIDERABLE.
Danger Scale: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/ed-scale.htm
Mountain Weather: (You can
find the afternoon Weather Update here.)
A warm, southwest flow will be over the area today. Temperatures will soar into the 50’s at 8,000’
and low 40’s at 10,000’. Winds will be
from a southerly direction, with ridgetop averages of 15 to 25 mph this
morning, increasing to near 35 mph later today.
High thin clouds will move in this afternoon ahead of a cold front that will
arrive just after midnight. The
rain/snow mix will rapidly change to all snow by Friday morning. Much colder on Friday, with
6 to 12” of snow possible. Another
shot of snow is expected in the north on Saturday, though the splitting storm is
sending its main energy toward southern
Wasatch
Powderbird guides were in Mineral,
If you are getting out, we appreciate
your snowpack and avalanche observations.
Please call and leave a message at 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or e-mail
us at [email protected]. Fax is 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.
Drew Hardesty will update this
advisory by 7:30 on Friday morning.
Thanks for calling.