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
AVALANCHE BULLETIN
Sunday, November 13, 2005 5pm
Good afternoon,
this is Drew Hardesty with the
The annual report for 2004-05 is now on the web. (Click
HERE,
8mb)
Current Conditions:
Looking back the last couple of days, Friday’s rain event is responsible for a
crust of varying thicknesses up to about 10,500’ and is now blanketed by Saturday’s
4-5” of thick creamy powder. This caps a
12-18” mostly stable snowpack and best described the upper elevation shady
slopes on Sunday until a rain/rime event pushed through mid afternoon.
Avalanche Discussion:
As of Sunday
afternoon, there’s wasn’t much happening with the snowpack. The concern, however, will be with the continued
and expected snowfall of 10-16” through late Monday coupled with strong west to
northwesterly winds. If the forecast verifies, both sensitive new wind
drifts and long running sluffs can be expected on steep upper elevation slopes. With a fair amount of snow to blow around,
the strong winds will load starting zones further down the slope, crossload steep gulleys and drift
snow onto more than just easterly aspects.
These new drifts will look pillowy and rounded
in the encatchment zones. And classically, cracking and collapsing are two
signs to alert the savvy traveler to the present instability. Remember it’s not too early in the season to
get into trouble: Exhibit A would be the season’s first fatality in
Mountain Weather:
Backed by a moist
westerly flow and Monday’s forecasted strong cold front, the Ogden and Salt
Lake mountains should see 4-8” tonight and another 4-8” on Monday in favored
locales, just what our “vertically challenged” snowpack is desperate for. The westerly winds will build to 25-35 mph
tonight and increase to 35-45 mph tomorrow, shifting northwesterly after
frontal passage about midday. Current 10,000’
temperatures in the mid twenties will plummet to near 12 degrees post frontal
as well. Winds and snowfall will taper
off rapidly late Monday as the flow shifts northerly and will remain north to
northwesterly as a ridge builds to the west.
Ridgetop temperatures rebound to the mid-thirties by mid-week.
We will update this advisory as conditions warrant. Stay tuned.
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.)
We
are looking for feed back on our MOCK-UP of our new advisory format. Let us know what you think! http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/newadvisory
Thanks for calling.