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
“keeping
you on top”
AVALANCHE ADVISORY
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Friday,
November 24, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
Temperatures cooled
off significantly yesterday and are now in the mid to upper teens at most
locations. Average ridgetop wind speeds
are 5 to 10 mph with gusts to near 30 at the most exposed locations. Surface conditions range from a brain
rattling melt freeze crust at lower elevations to wind effected snow at the
higher locations. Dense settled powder
can still be found in the 9000 to 9500 foot range on northerly facing slopes. For the most part the thin snowpack is
supportable which makes traveling quite easy.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
The fast moving cold
front that came through on Thursday laid down a whopping trace to a ½ inch of
snow.
Winds on Thursday were
strong enough to produce some plumes off of the highest peaks. This might have formed a few drifts that
could be sensitive to the weight of a person.
These drifts will be fairly shallow and not pose too much threat. You might find these on upper elevation north
through east facing slopes.
Stability tests still
show weakness in the sugary snow near the ground. (MORE)
While it’s pretty difficult to find
a slope that may avalanche there were still a few slopes that I avoided on Thursday. It may take another load of snow for this
weakness to become active again. Nonetheless,
we can’t forget about this problem just yet.
Click HERE
to check out a new experimental stability test.
Bottom Line:
Most slopes have a LOW avalanche danger today.
However, there are pockets with a MODERATE danger on
slopes that face the north half of the compass above about 9500 feet that are
steeper than 35 degrees. There is also a
MODERATE danger on steep slopes with recent
deposits of wind drifted snow.
Mountain Weather:
Today we’ll have
mostly clear skies with ridgetop temperatures in the mid to upper 20s. Southwest winds will be in the 5 to 10 mph
range with gusts near 30 at the most exposed locations. For the weekend we’ll see partly cloudy skies
with ridgetop temperatures in the mid 20s.
A potentially significant snow storm is shaping up for Monday night
through Wednesday with plenty of cold air and a decent amount of moisture.
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.
Evelyn Lees will
update this advisory by 7:30 on Friday morning and thanks for calling.