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 31, 2006 7:30am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
Warm temperatures and some more wind
headline the news from yesterday.
Temperatures climbed into the upper 20s to low 30s and ridgetop winds
blew in the 20 mph range with gusts to around 40 from the southwest. Winds shifted to the northwest overnight and
are slowing down. Snow totals are around
3” in the
Avalanche Conditions:
Warm temperatures on Monday turned the snow into not
so enjoyable conditions however things did settle out nicely with no new
avalanche activity reported. The winds
in the afternoon did transport a small amount of snow but it looks like they
calmed down about the time the new snow started falling. With only .5 to .7 inches of water added to
the snowpack, even Drew aka
“the facet conspiracy theorist” won’t get worked up by this amount of new weight. However, the snowpack is quite varied under
the last few storms making me dig and perform more tests on different aspects
and elevations then I have been doing over the last few weeks.
The main concern for today will be with
the new snow. Watch for any fresh drifts
that may have formed along the upper ridgelines. As usual, cracking is a sign that you may
produce a slab avalanche. Perform a few
shear tests on your way up to see how the new snow bonded to the old snow surface. Sluffing of this new snow may be an issue
this morning so use a few test slopes to see how it reacts when you disturb
it.
Bottom Line:
Today the avalanche danger is MODERATE. This means human triggered avalanches are
possible. You will find these on steep
upper elevation slopes where some fresh wind drifting may have occurred. Elsewhere, the avalanche danger is LOW.
Mountain Weather:
Snow showers are ending. Today
ridgetop temperatures will drop into the low 20s to upper teens and ridgetop
winds will be from the north northwest in the 10 to 15 mph range. Another storm will affect the area on Wednesday
with fairly impressive water totals. This
storm looks to be windier then last night’s storm. The next chance of snow after that will be
Sunday.
Click here for the National
Weather Service graphic Forecast.
Announcements:
Early birds and snow
geeks can catch our 6AM report at 364-1591.
You can find our mountain
weather forecast here
by about noon each day.
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, call Snowbird at
933-2147. Visit www.backcountryawareness.com
for more details.
Check out our new graphical advisory format. You can update your bookmarks to this link:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/newadvisory/advisory.php
Click HERE for a text only
version of the avalanche advisory.
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 Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, and
The
Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t get out yesterday and will fly in Mineral,
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.
Evelyn Lees will
update this advisory by 7:30 Wednesday morning.
Thanks for calling.