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

Saturday, December 23, 2006  7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory.  Today is Saturday, December 23, 2006 and it’s 7:30 in the morning. 

 

Current Conditions:

Ridgetop temperatures cooled right off and are in the single digits at many locations while northerly winds are light.  Only 1 to 2 inches of snow fell in the last 24 hours.

 

Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:

Friday’s soupy weather produced a small amount of snow that would sluff along with some of the faceted surface snow from the last week.  Aside from that things are fairly quiet.  A thin rime crust reportedly formed during the day in the Ogden mountains on top of the few inches of new snow.  It’s a good time to take a look at the big picture of the snowpack up to this point.  Click HERE for a snow and weather review from mid October to December 20th.

 

There were a few avalanches during the mid week which demonstrate that you may still find some pockets out there especially near the upper ridges.  (Natural avalanche, Red Baldy in the White Pine drainage.  PHOTO 1, PHOTO 2)   Wind drifts on top of sugary (faceted) snow would be the likely set up.

 

Bottom Line for the Salt Lake, Park City, Ogden and Provo area mountains:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW today but there are pockets with a MODERATE danger near upper elevation ridges.  Watch for drifts and slabs in thin snowpack areas with weaker snow underneath.

 

Mountain Weather:

Today we’ll see partly cloudy skies with light northerly winds and ridgetop temperatures in the mid 20s.  A fast moving storm will affect the northern Utah mountains on Sunday with a chance of snow.  Areas north of I-80 have a better chance for snow.  Water numbers are not impressive however, and I’d only expect 2 to 5 inches of snow in the mountains.  An unsettled pattern should remain through the week.

 

Announcements:

Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly and today they will be in American Fork and Cascade. 

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

For our classic text advisory click HERE.

To sign up for automated e-mails of our graphical advisory click HERE

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.

Drew Hardesty will update this advisory by 7:30 on Sunday morning, and thanks for calling.