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

Wednesday, March 28, 2007  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 Wednesday, March 28, 2007 and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

 

Current Conditions:

The storm is officially a bust!  Don’t get me wrong, there’s still fresh powder to go out and enjoy but we won’t see the 20 to 30 inches which was originally possible.  Storm totals as of 6:30 this morning are 4 to 9 inches fairly evenly distributed from the Provo mountains through the Salt Lake mountains and into the Ogden area with a little less in the Park City areas.  Snow tapered off overnight but has started back up.  Mountain temperatures are in the upper teens to mid 20s and winds really dropped off overnight and are currently from a northerly direction at less then 10 mph at most stations.  If you haven’t been out in a while keep in mind that you may find dirt and rocks under the new snow in some locations due to our recent melt down.

 

Snow and Avalanche Discussion:

You had to stay out late to see any avalanche activity on Tuesday which consisted of minor sluffing within the new snow.  A period of convective weather produced thunder, lightning, some large graupel and heavier density snow to start the storm out.  This bonded to the old snow surface quite well.  Lighter density snow followed in a period of high snowfall rates where a person could initiate sluffing.  Snow tapered off mid evening which gave it some time to settle but has started again with a period of 2 inches an hour from 5 to 6 am.  (click the Photos link on the left for some observations)

 

The main concern for today will be within the new snow.  People may be able to initiate sluffing and if it’s on a sustained enough slope could produce a small to medium sized pile of debris, maybe even enough to knock you over.  Also, you might find a small wind drift that may crack along the higher ridgelines but this will be spotty at best unless the winds pick up late today. 

 

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

The avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning on most slopes.  There is a pockety MODERATE danger for sluffing of the new snow and the occasional wind drift along exposed ridges.

 

Mountain Weather: 

We’ll see periods of snow during the day today with another 3 to 6 inches expected.  Not much more snow is expected tonight into Thursday.  Winds will be northerly in the 5 to 10 mph range picking up late in the day into the 10 to 15 mph range gusting into the 30s.  Ridgetop temperatures will be in the mid 20s.  Thursday will be partly cloudy with a small chance for snow in the morning along with slightly warmer temperatures and continued northerly winds in the 10 to 20 mph range. 

 

Announcements:

The Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t fly yesterday and won’t today. For more info, call 742-2800.

 

The Canyons Professional Ski Partol Association is hosting a fundraiser for the Friends of the Utah Avalalanche Center April 1, at 7:30 at Side Car in Park City.

 

Listen to the advisory.  Try our new streaming audio or podcasts

UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found HERE or by calling (801) 975-4838.

Our statewide tollfree line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, 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 all the great snowpack and avalanche observations we’ve been getting, so keep leaving us messages 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.

Bruce Tremper will
update this advisory by 7:30 on Thursday morning, and thanks for calling.