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
Tuesday,
January 30, 2007 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Our partners, the Friends of the UAC, are hosting numerous events during
the 4th Annual Backcountry Awareness Week.
There will be a dinner February 2nd at The Canyons with Olympic Gold Medal
Winner Jim Shea, avalanche classes at the Canyons on February 3rd
and 4th, and a showing of a Teton Ski Documentary film on Feb 8th
at Brewvies. Details are below, or click here for more
information.
Current Conditions:
Click
here for today’s gratuitous (but poor) forecaster
humor
Well, what can I say
that hasn’t been said over the last few weeks?
I could say it’s going to dump!!
However, I’d be lying because it’s not going to happen. Oh well, I’ll get on with business now. Overnight temperatures were in the 15 to 20
degree range and winds were light from the west. Believe it or not, no new snow was recorded
in the last 24 hours.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
People are making the
best of it out there with the shallow, weak snowpack. I hear things like “conditions are good by
east coast standards” and “things could be worse”. Well, things could be a whole lot better in
my book. Ah, how quickly we forget
though. It was only a few seasons ago
during the winter of 02-03 when we had less snow on the ground at the end of
January then we do now. (GRAPH: Jan 03 The line in the upper
graph that represents total snow depth reads around 45 inches at Alta which is
less then the 56 inch current total. Jan
07)
If you’re sifting
around out there today the main thing you’ll want to watch for is sluffing on
steeper slopes that have loose snow on the surface.
Bottom Line for the
Today, the avalanche
danger is generally LOW, with some isolated
pockets of MODERATE danger on steep, shady slopes due to
easily triggered sluffs in the loose, faceted snow.
Mountain Weather:
A couple of weak
storms will affect the area today and Wednesday but won’t bring a whole lot of
new snow. Today we’ll see mostly cloudy
skies with snow flurries possible.
Ridgetop temperatures will be in the mid 20s and ridgetop winds will be
from the west northwest in the 5 to 10 mph range. Wednesday brings a slightly better chance for
snow with a few inches of accumulation possible.
Announcements:
Yesterday, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides were in
the Sessions and Cascade. Today, they’ll
do the same weather pending. With
questions regarding their areas of operation call 742-2800.
There will be a Fundraising Dinner on Friday, February 2, 2007. The dinner
will be at The Canyons and Olympic Gold Medal Winner Jim Shea will be the
keynote speaker. For tickets and information visit www.UtahAvalancheCenter.com Also, the Canyons will be
offering avalanche classes on Saturday and Sunday, February 3rd and
4th. For more information and
to register, call 435-615-3325. And
finally, at 7:30 on February 8th, there will be a Teton Skiing
documentary at Brewvies as a fundraiser for the Friends of the UAC.
Listen to the
advisory. Try our new streaming audio or
podcasts
UDOT highway avalanche
control work information can be found HERE or by calling (801) 975-4838.
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.
Evelyn Lees will update this advisory by 7:30 on Wednesday morning, and
thanks for calling.