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.

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AVALANCHE ADVISORY

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Thursday, November 23, 2006  7:30 am
Good morning, this is Bruce Tremper with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center.  Today is Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23, 2006 and it’s 7:30 in the morning. 

 

Current Conditions:

It’s been warm and blustery overnight with temperatures an astounding 40 degrees at 8,000’ and just above freezing at 10,000’.  Ridgetop winds are blasting from the south at 30 mph and up to 40, gusting to 60 on the most exposed peaks.  We’re expecting a turkey of a storm around noon before you eat your turkey this afternoon.  We will be lucky to get a couple inches of snow, but hey, at least it will freeze the damp surface crusts into something hard enough to rattle out your fillings.  Although we have been keeping it a secret, there’s actually some passable, soft, settled, old, powder on upper elevation northerly facing slopes, but all south facing slopes and slopes below about 9,000’ are pretty bony.

 

Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:

The snow is worn out and limp with not much energy and the places where you could trigger an avalanche have shrunk down to just a few pockets on slopes that face the north half of the compass above about 10,000’.   On some of these slopes, my snow profiles are still producing both initiation and propagation, meaning that you could still pop something out if you hit it in the right place.  Although almost all slopes are quite stable, you should still be suspicious of the upper elevation shady slopes.

Also, today if we do get more snow than I think, you will have to worry about the usual wind drifts on steep slopes.

 

Bottom Line:

Most slopes have a LOW avalanche danger today.  However, there are pockets of MODERATE danger on slopes that face the north half of the compass above about 10,000 feet that are steeper than about 35 degrees.  There is also a MODERATE danger on steep slopes with recent deposits of wind drifted snow.

 

Mountain Weather:

Today’s storm will be another one of those huff-and-puff-with-not-much-fluff, kind of storms.  A quick-hitting cold front will arrive around noon and lay down a mighty two inches of snow if we are lucky—just enough to conceal the rocks.  Ridge top temperatures will drop from near freezing this morning to the upper teens by tonight.  Ridge top winds will decrease from 30-40 mph from the south this morning to around 25 mph from the west tonight.  Then, it looks like we return to nice, warm weather over the weekend.

The extended forecast calls for a potentially significant snow storm on Monday through Wednesday.  But I don’t want to jinx it, so I won’t dare say more.

 

Announcements:

Our partners, the FUAC, will hold their next fundraiser at Brewvies on Dec 7th. There will be two showings of TGR’s new film, “The Anomaly”, at 7pm and 9pm.  Advance tickets are available.

 

We appreciate any snowpack and avalanche observations, so please let us know by calling (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 on Friday morning and thanks for calling.