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
Sunday,
December 10, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Drew Hardesty with
the
Current Conditions:
Soon the ridge of high
pressure will be just another bad dream as a series of westerlies kick in for
the week. It’s nice to see some colors
on the IR satellite imagery headed our way. We’ll see a couple inches by late afternoon with
a fair shot of it overnight. With equal
anticipation, the southerly winds picked up again and are blowing 25-30mph with
gusts into the 50’s along the high ridgelines.
Temps are in the mid-to low twenties.
Upper elevations are damaged from sun and wind, but the protected shady
slopes still offer some soft recrystallized powder.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
With the strong
southerly winds to blame, one of our observers was able to crack out a couple
fresh 8” by 20’ hard slabs in upper Mineral Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Along the more exposed ridgelines affected by
the stronger southerly winds, look for more of the same, avoiding those steep
starting zones where consequences matter.
In the meantime, we’ll
focus on the terrain littered with weak snow.
The surface hoar and surface facets won’t take kindly to a good
storm. It all depends on how much and
how fast. If we get nickle’d
and dime’d, things will be tricky and pockety as
there may not be enough of a load to get things going. In any event, the avalanche danger will be on
the rise with the snow expected for this afternoon and tonight. It’ll be a different ballgame.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger remains
generally LOW with a few isolated pockets of hard slab
along the higher shady ridgelines. If we
get more snow than expected, dusk patrollers will want to watch for a rising
danger to MODERATE of increased sluffing on the steeper
aspects as well as alliterative shallow sensitive soft slabs.
Mountain Weather:
A series of
progressively stronger Pacific weather disturbances will cross northern
Announcements:
Listen to the
advisory. Try our new streaming audio or
podcasts
Our new,
state wide tollfree hotline is 1-888-999-4019.
(For early morning detailed avalanche activity report hit option 8)
For a list of avalanche
classes, click HERE
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advisory click HERE.
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We appreciate any
snowpack and avalanche observations you have, so please leave us a message at
(801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at [email protected]. (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.
I will update this
advisory by 7:30 on Monday morning.