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
Thursday,
January 12, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Evelyn Lees 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:
A
winter storm raced through the Wasatch overnight, leaving a decent shot of snow
in it’s wake. The
Avalanche Conditions:
It’s all or nothing today. In wind sheltered terrain, there will be well
behaved powder that is generally well bonded to the old snow. In this terrain the avalanche danger is
generally low; though do expect some sluffing of the new snow on steep slopes.
It
will be a different story in the more wind exposed terrain. In both mid and upper elevation terrain, the strong
winds have blown the new snow into sensitive drifts one to two feet deep that
should be easy to trigger on steep slopes.
The fresh drifts of snow will be both along the ridges and down off the
ridgelines, cross loaded around terrain features such as gully walls, sub
ridges and breakovers. The dense drifts
may be pockety in nature due to the gusty winds, and cornices could be sensitive.
Bottom Line: (
The avalanche danger is CONSIDERABLE
on any steep slope with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. The wind drifts are most widespread along the
exposed ridgelines and in mid and upper elevation terrain. Out of the wind affected terrain, the
avalanche danger is generally LOW.
Mountain Weather:
A few light snow showers and locally strong winds across the highest
peaks will continue early this morning. Then
the air mass will stabilize, and skies will become mostly clear and the northwesterly
winds decreasing to less than 15 mph by afternoon. Temperatures will be in the mid teens at
10,000’ and the upper 20’s at 8,000’. Friday
will be mostly sunny and much warmer, with 10,000’ highs in the low 30’s. A couple more storms are lined up to affect
northern
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 933-2147.
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.
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides was in Days Fork yesterday, and today when it clears they
will be in
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.
Brett Kobernik will update this advisory by 7:30 Friday morning. Thanks for calling.