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
Thursday, November 17, 2005 5pm
Good morning,
this is Brett Kobernik with the
The annual report for 2004-05 is now on the web.
(Click HERE,
8mb)
Current Conditions:
The series of small storms from last Friday through Monday added some much
needed depth to our current snowpack.
Temperatures have remained cold and wind speeds have calmed down after
Mondays blast. Currently skies are
cloudy over the mountains. Temperatures at
8,000 feet are near 30 and in the low 20s at 10,000 feet. Ridge top winds are from the northwest at 20
miles per hour with gusts to 50 at the highest locations.
Avalanche Discussion:
Mondays wind slab avalanches
are now a thing of the past. Although,
if you dig down you will continue to find shears above last Fridays frozen
crust. These shears are down 12 to 24
inches and are somewhat stubborn and not real clean either. (Snow
Profile) You may also find some
minor cracking higher in the snowpack on graupel that fell on Monday. I don’t think that either of these shears
present a problem right now.
Wind and temperature changes over the next week will
dictate what type of avalanche problems we may encounter if any. The first thing that comes to mind is there
is enough loose snow on the surface that could get blown into sensitive drifts
with the forecasted winds today. The next
thing to keep in mind is problems with wet avalanches. Temperatures should warm a bit over the
weekend, so this danger could increase on steep southeast through southwest
facing slopes especially on slopes that had snow prior to our last storm.
A bigger danger right now is the possibility of
falling on rocks just under the snow surface.
Keep in mind that a lot of areas have a very shallow, unconsolidated snowpack. Have patience. You don’t want to end your winter season due
to injuries before it even really gets started.
Mountain Weather:
A high pressure
ridge is making its way over
For Thursday we’ll see a few clouds moving through
in the morning then clearing late afternoon.
Temperatures at 8,000 feet will be in the mid 30s and upper 20s at
10,000 feet. Ridge top winds will be
from the N at 10 to 20 miles per hour with gusts into the 40s & 50s at the
more exposed locations. Friday will be
mostly clear with slightly warmer temperatures.
Ridgetop winds should remain from the north at 10 to 20 mph.
Temperatures should warm up a bit more over the
weekend and stay there into next week.
We will update this advisory as conditions
warrant. Stay tuned and thanks for
calling.
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.