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
Friday,
April 07, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
I’m going to keep it simple
today and stick to the facts. An
avalanche warning remains in effect for the mountains of northern
UDOT will be conducting
avalanche control work in Little and Big Cottonwood
Canyons this morning.
Wind speeds have dropped off
and the storm is exiting the area. Skies
are cloudy and temperatures along the ridges are in the low 20s and in the
upper 20s at 8,000’.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
The mountains of northern
The wind slabs that formed
yesterday will still be a concern today.
While they won’t be as “hair trigger” as yesterday, they do have the
potential to be very dangerous. With two
feet of new snow from yesterday, drifts could be over four feet deep or more in
places. This is certainly nothing you
want to screw around with. Different
from last weekend’s storm, many of these slabs may be past the point of being manageable
with slope cuts.
Warming temperatures today
have the potential to dramatically weaken the newest snow. This large amount of snow will be sensitive
to warming. As the day progresses stay
out from under any avalanche paths which means steep slopes above you. If avalanches start releasing due to daytime
heating they have the potential to be large and destructive.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger starts out CONSIDERABLE today and may rise to HIGH if temperatures do warm significantly. While the frequency of avalanching may not be
that great, both avalanching in fresh wind drifts and avalanches caused by
daytime heating have the potential to be huge.
Many of the out of bounds areas adjacent to the ski resorts have some of
the most suspect avalanche terrain and conditions. Think twice before leaving the ski area today.
Mountain Weather:
The air mass warms
substantially today. Cloud cover will be
the wild card with a gradual clearing expected.
8,000 foot temperatures will rise into the 40s with 10,000 temperatures
into the 30s and possibly warmer with clearing skies. Winds will be light from the northwest.
Any snow safety workers
with visions of an afternoon barbeque at the upper patrol shacks may want to
hold off on that thought for a while as storms are still forecast to affect the
area through next week with a small one starting Saturday morning.
Announcements:
Early birds and snow geeks can catch our 6AM report
at 364-1591.
Click here to check out our new online avalanche
encyclopedia.
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
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly yesterday and I’ve received no
information from them today but I’d expect them to be performing bombing
missions for UDOT and my guess would be they’ll go for
Special announcement:
The
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 Saturday morning. Thanks for calling.