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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Monday,
December 04, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
Skies are clear with warmer,
albeit inverted mountain temperatures.
Temps above 9000’ are in the mid to low twenties while the cold sinks
have temps in the single digits. You can
see the handwriting on the wall with the development of the ‘haze’ in the valleys
and we’ll need something to stir the pot soon.
Winds remain light from the northwest with some of the highest
ridgelines recording a few hourly averages in the mid twenties. Riding conditions remain excellent with a
soon-to-soften zipper on the sunny aspects.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
Like my old grandpa used to say…..‘if there ain’t nothing
happening, ain’t nothing gonna
happen’. With weakening surface snow and
sluffing the only thing to write home about, it looks like it might come down
to hoping for a new storm before the mid-pack rots out at least at the
mid-elevations. The colder temperatures
have done little to heal the weak faceted snow in the shallower areas while
efficiently promoting recrystallization and surface hoar development on the
surface. If you need to knock the
cobwebs off your surface
hoar and temperature
gradient snow understanding, check out our snow encyclopedia here. In the mean time, enjoy the turns in the
hills, avoid that odd wind drift in the highest, most exposed terrain, and be
alert to the wet snow activity in the afternoon.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger
is mostly LOW today.
The danger of wet loose snow activity will rise to MODERATE with
daytime heating.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure will
generally dominate our weather pattern for the upcoming week. 8000’ and 10,000’ temps will rise to 40 and
32 degrees today while the northwesterly winds remain on their best behavior. A storm passing by to the north of us should temporarily
bump speeds and lower temps by late Tuesday.
The models are bouncing around a splitting system for the weekend, but
looks like we may just be grasping at straws.
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 you have, 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 Tuesday morning and thanks for calling.