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 ADVISORY
Tuesday,
January 10, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Check out our new graphical advisory format. You can update your bookmarks to this link:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/newadvisory/advisory.php
Current Conditions:
Ridgetop temperatures are around 20 degrees give or take a little and
ridgetop winds are in the 15 to 20 mph range from a westerly direction. Yesterdays clear skies made the snow surface
on southerly through west facing slopes become damp and will have a crust this
morning.
Avalanche Conditions:
Sluffing of the new snow on steeper slopes was the main concern on
Monday. There were a few reports of slab
avalanches that pulled out naturally during the storm and also a couple from
ski cuts. These were class one slides at
around 8 to 12” deep that didn’t pose a real great threat.
For today the main concern will be any fresh wind drifts that may have
formed over the last 24 hours. Although
the wind didn’t pick up a whole lot, the light density snow on the surface was
transported very easily with many plumes being noted in the afternoon on Monday. For the most part these won’t be large enough
to bury a person but if you do trigger one, you more then likely will have to be
on a steep slope so take into consideration the consequences if you do pop one
of these slabs out and it takes you for a ride.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger is LOW in most locations
however a MODERATE danger does exist in the steep wind
loaded upper elevation terrain. You will
most likely find these pockety wind drifts on north through southeast facing
slopes.
Mountain Weather:
For today we’ll see partly cloudy skies with clouds increasing in the
afternoon. Ridgetop temperatures will be
in the mid to upper 20s and ridgetop winds will be in the 15 mph range from the
southwest.
The next storm is still looking promising with a good amount of moisture
and cold air. We’ll be in a westerly
flow on Wednesday shifting to northwest Wednesday night. Wednesday night into Thursday will be the
period with the heaviest snowfall. 1 to
2 feet of snow is possible.
Other mountain weather information can be found here.
Regional
Snow Profile (this profile can also be
found daily off our home page under avalanche products)
Click here for Seasonal Weather History Charts.
Announcements and
Miscellaneous:
3rd Annual Backcountry Awareness Week Monday Jan 30-Sunday
February 5
Fundraising Dinner February
3rd at 6pm with speakers Conrad Anker and Apa Sherpa. For more info, go to www.backcountryawareness.com or
call Snowbird at 922-2147.
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides were in the Bountiful Sessions, American Fork, and
Lamb’s Canyon yesterday and today they’ll be in Mineral,
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.)
UDOT also has a highway avalanche control work
hotline for Little Cottonwood road, which is updated as needed. 801-975-4838.
Please
report any backcountry snow and avalanche conditions. Call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, email [email protected] or fax 801-524-6301. 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.