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
Sunday,
April 16, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
Partly cloudy skies and overnight
temperatures in the low thirties support at least a superficial refreeze of the
snowpack this morning. The pre-storm southwesterly
winds gained momentum overnight with anemometers reading 25-35mph, gusting to the
mid-50’s. High northerly slopes will still provide a few
turns of settled powder while the off aspects will have a blend of breakable
and supportable melt freeze crusts.
Recent Avalanche Activity & Snowpack Discussion:
Up high, at least, a
density break 4-6” down in the new snow initially provided action with slope
cuts and cornice drops. This instability
settled out quickly with daytime heating, which led to the next issue. Warming temperatures, direct sun, and greenhousing conspired to elevate the wet
sluff danger by midday. Many long
running sluffs ran full track with some gouging into older wet unconsolidated
layers.
For today, be alert for isolated
wind drifts on the lee of ridgelines and steep breakovers in the higher
elevations. They’ll be most commonly
found on steep northwest through east facing slopes, yet stronger winds will
likely have deposited a pocket or two in unlikely spots. Regarding the wet activity for today, timing
will again be everything. Once the crusts
no longer become supportable, you’ll have no business being on the slope. Move to cooler adjacent aspects or lower
angled terrain.
I heard of some poor travel
etiquette in the backcountry yesterday.
Keep things tight by moving through suspect terrain one at a time, don’t
descend on top of other parties, and maintain good visual and verbal contact.
Bottom Line:
There is a MODERATE danger for
any new wind drifts in steep upper elevation terrain. The danger for wet activity at the mid and
low elevations and all sun-exposed slopes will yet again rise to MODERATE and then CONSIDERABLE with daytime heating.
Mountain Weather:
We’ll have partly cloudy
skies this morning with increasing clouds late afternoon ahead of tonight’s
storm. Winds and temperatures will
continue to rise throughout the day with 8000’ highs reaching to the upper 40’s
and 10k temps to the upper 30’s. The
southwesterlies will reach a crescendo of 35-40mph this afternoon. Tonight’s storm looks like a pretty good
bet. Temperatures drop to the low teens
post-frontal tomorrow and 12-18” of storm snow is expected in favored locations.
Announcements:
The second annual “Beacon and Eggs” contests are
in full swing, with BIG prizes to the winners.
For
more information, go to http://www.snowbird.com/events/events/beaconandeggs.html
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
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.
We will update this advisory in
the next day or so. Stay tuned.