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
Wednesday,
January 16, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Yesterday’s cold front
slammed into northern
Avalanche Discussion:
Yesterday’s reported avalanche
activity was of easily triggered shallow, soft wind drifts, with one natural soft
slab reported off a very windy, high elevation ridgeline. Sluffing of the surface snow was still occurring
on steep slopes.
Yesterday’s strong winds
created a haze
of snow obscuring the peaks even after the skies cleared. The strong winds blew from a southwesterly through
northwesterly direction, and drifted snow at all elevations and on a variety of
aspects. Wind
video clip! In places, the snow
along the ridgelines was being eroded, and I could watch the winds pushing the
snow well down slope. So in addition to the
typical drifting along the ridgelines, snow will be loaded well off the ridges. Don’t be surprised to find sensitive drifts
several turns into a slope, at a mid-slope breakovers, or cross loaded onto a
surprising aspect. Some of these drifts
may be sitting on weak near surface facets or surface hoar that wasn’t
destroyed by the winds, and wind drifts on these layers will be more sensitive
and possible triggered from a distance. Also,
keep in the back of your mind that faceted snow does exist near the ground, and
deep slides could still be triggered in very isolated places with a thin snow
pack.
Bottom Line for the
The
avalanche danger is MODERATE on
steep slopes with recent drifts of wind blown snow, which will be found on a
variety of aspects and elevations due to yesterday’s high wind speeds. Sensitive wind drifts are both along the
ridgelines, and well off ridges, where snow is drifted around terrain features such
as rocks, gully walls and slope breakovers.
Also be prepared for sluffing of the surface snow in steep terrain.
Mountain Weather:
Frostbite city today,
with the cold northerly flow keeping temperatures in the single digits at 8,000’
and below zero at 10,000’. Even with the
northerly winds generally less than 15 mph, the wind chill will make it feel
like it’s in the negative teens and 20’s.
The highest exposed peaks could have occasional gusts into the 30’s. Skies will be partly cloudy today, with a few
morning snow flurries possible. Clouds
will increase again tonight, with a slight chance for a few isolated snow showers.
For the rest of the week, temperatures
will slowly warm, and the next chance for snow is Sunday night into Monday.
Announcements
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly yesterday due to weather. Today, weather permitting,
they’ll be in White Pine,
The free avalanche beacon parks are up and running at Solitude, Snowbird and the
Canyons. They’re great places to
practice by yourself or with friends.
If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.
UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found
by calling (801) 975-4838.
Our statewide tollfree line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).
The UAC depends on contributions from users like you to support our
work. To find out more about how you can support our efforts to continue
providing the avalanche forecasting and education that you expect please
visit our Friends page.
If you’re getting out and see anything we should know
about please let us know. You can leave
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.
Bruce
Tremper will update this advisory by 7:30 on Thursday morning.