Wasatch Cache National Forest
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 Salt Lake County.

 

AVALANCHE ADVISORY

Sunday, February 19, 2006  7:30am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Sunday, February 19, 2006, and it’s about 7:30 am.

 

A long time fundraiser for the Utah Avalanche Center, the Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming back to town February 21st and 22nd at Kingsbury Hall.  Tickets will be available at Kingsbury Hall, Art-Tix, the Outdoor Rec Program at the U and REI.  For more info, call 581-8516.

 

Current Conditions:

With the new snow that’s fallen in the last 24 hrs and a few periods of gusty winds along the ridges, the avalanche danger is on the rise.  24 hour snow totals as of this morning are averaging around 6 inches from Ben Lomond down to Timpanogus.  The upper ends of the Cottonwoods are pushing a foot in the last 24 hrs with just over a half inch of water and less lower in the canyons.  Higher elevation terrain around Park City picked up 7 or 8 inches of new snow.  Southerly winds blew Saturday morning in the 15 to 20 mph range gusting to around 30 then slowed in the afternoon.  There was another period of similar winds last night and they now are in the 10 mph range from the southwest.  Temperatures are in the single digits to low teens at most mountain locations.

Avalanche Conditions:

Sluffing was the main concern from Saturday with no significant avalanche activity reported.  The gusty winds did transport some snow yesterday morning along the ridgetops but no one found any of these fresh drifts to be very sensitive.  (For more information on the current snow pack click HERE).

 

For today our main concern will again be sluffing and the possibility of a slab avalanche in wind affected terrain.  With cold temperatures Wednesday’s snow has been slow to settle and with the addition of more light density snow the sluffs today have the potential to be quite large.  The few periods of wind over the last 24 hrs may have produced some areas where a person could trigger a slab avalanche as well.  This will be mainly confined to steep terrain along the upper ridgelines on northwest through northeast facing slopes.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE on slopes steeper then 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.  Human triggered slab avalanches are possible.  The danger may rise to CONSIDERABLE if snow totals and wind speeds are higher then forecasted.

Mountain Weather:

Today we’ll see snow showers throughout the day with an additional 4 to 8 inches of snow possible containing ¼” to ½” of water.  Ridgetop temperatures will remain cold in the single digits and ridgetop winds should behave and stay in the 10 to 15 mph range along the ridges.  Things should start to clear Monday morning with continued cold temperatures. 

Announcements:

Click here to check out our new online avalanche encyclopedia.

 

Early birds and snow geeks can catch our 6AM report at 364-1591.

Click HERE for a text only version of the avalanche advisory.

To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day, click HERE. 

UDOT also has a highway avalanche control work hotline for Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, and Provo canyons, which is updated as needed. 801-975-4838.

Wasatch Powderbirds did not get out on Saturday and probably won’t get out today but will go to American Fork and the Sessions if possible.  For more info, call 742-2800.

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.

Bruce Tremper will update this advisory by 7:30 Monday morning.  Thanks for calling.