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
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you on top”
AVALANCHE ADVISORY
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Tuesday,
December 05, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
Currently, skies are
mostly clear. Ridgetop temperatures are in
the mid 20s with slightly lower readings in the valley bottoms. Ridgetop winds are 5 to 10 mph gusting into
the 20s.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
The powder is getting louder. This is a result of near surface faceting and
surface hoar formation. In simple terms,
the surface snow continues to weaken. This
is not an issue at this time but is something we will pay close attention to if
it ever gets covered up with new snow.
In general, the snowpack is still fairly supportable especially in areas
where the overall depth is 3 to 4 feet.
In areas that have less, things are significantly weaker. I’ve been finding areas where my skis
penetrate through the most recent layer into weak snow near the ground. These areas will need to be treated with much
respect once we start loading them with more snow. (CLICK
FOR DIAGRAM)
For today the main concern will be any new wind
deposited snow. Wind speeds are forecast
to pick up slightly today but this will mainly affect only the higher
locations. Nonetheless, pay attention to
any fresh drifting. With plenty of weak
snow around, any new drift on top is suspect.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger
is mostly LOW today.
The slight increase in wind speeds does deserve a “pockety” MODERATE rating in areas with recent deposits of wind
drifted snow. This will be mostly on
easterly facing slopes at the higher elevations.
Mountain Weather:
A slight disturbance
to our north will produce partly cloudy skies in our area. Northwest wind speeds in the 10 to 20 mph
range will increase slightly and may reach 50 mph at the most exposed
locations. Ridgetop temperatures will be
in the upper 20s. An upper level ridge
will be over us Thursday and Friday resulting in clear skies with mild
temperatures in the mountains. The
weekend brings a change but currently the storms don’t look real good for much
snow in northern
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.
Evelyn Lees will update
this advisory by 7:30 on Wednesday morning and thanks for calling.