Wasatch Cache National Forest
In partnership with: Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and Salt Lake County.

 

AVALANCHE BULLETIN

Friday, November 04, 2005  8pm
Good evening, this is Drew Hardesty with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather bulletin.  Today is Friday, November 4th, 2005 and it’s 8pm. Don’t miss the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center’s annual backcountry gear swap on Saturday, November 5th at R.E.I.  (Information)

Current Conditions: 6-7” of 12% density snow fell in the Ogden and Salt Lake mountains, bumping our meager pack up to 12-16” on the highest elevation shady slopes.  The Provo mountains picked up only an inch or two, but likely have 2-3’ up high from the storms on the 27th and 28th of last month.  Accompanying temperatures were in the mid to upper twenties above 9000’ with westerly winds in the 15-25 mph range.  It looked like winter in the upper elevations today, but you’d have to think only the purest of thoughts to avoid the thinly veiled stumps and rocks. 

Avalanche Discussion:  The stronger gusts were enough to create isolated soft slabs along the higher elevations on predominantly eastern aspects.  One observer reported triggering a couple new wind drifts along the Brighton ridgeline up to 1’ deep and likely less than 50’ or so wide.  Beneath the new snow is either a melt freeze or wind crust, which in turn, overlies some weak faceted snow formed at the end of October. A conspicuous dirt layer from Wednesday’s strong southerly winds highlights the mid-pack crust and will be easy to find by digging down into the snow. (photo, snow profile).  Today’s storm wasn’t enough to overload this weak interface, but it’ll be something to keep an eye on for the next storm.  If you’re heading out this weekend, keep an eye out along the high ridgelines for some wind drifts that may still be sensitive to the weight of a person.

Mountain Weather:  The third in a series of weak storms embedded in the westerly pattern will push through tonight and tomorrow.  2-5” is possible in the northern Wasatch.  Winds tonight will be 20-25 mph out of the west northwest, then back to the southwest on Saturday, dropping to 10-15mph.  10,000’ temps will be in the high teens tonight and tomorrow with 8000’ highs near 30 on Saturday.  Saturday and Sunday look to be unsettled with a few showers.  A warm and windy Monday precedes a strong cold front due to arrive Tuesday morning.

You can also check out the National Weather Service web site for other weather forecasting products (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/).

Click HERE for a season history chart by month.


To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day, click HERE.  (You must re-sign up this season even if you were on the list last season.)

Don’t forget to put fresh batteries in your beacon and do some practice sessions in the back yard.

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center Home page is: http://www.utahavalanchecenter.com

We will update this forecast again on Monday afternoon.

Thanks for calling.