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,
April 09, 2008 7:30 am
Good morning, this is
Current Conditions:
The unbelievable
powder streak continues…light snow is falling once again in the mountains, and
the first wave of a disorganized storm dropped 1 to 4” of snow overnight, with
densities around 6%. The westerly winds remained
light, and are generally in the 5-10 mph range this morning, with even the
highest peaks only gusting into the 20’s.
Temperatures are in the upper teens to low 20’s. Clouds protected the upper and mid elevation northerly
facing slopes from the sun yesterday, while south through westerly and lower
elevation slopes heated and crusted.
Snow and Avalanche Discussion:
Yesterday was quiet, with
the only reported activity a few soft wind drifts triggered along the higher
ridgelines and minor sluffing of the dry snow.
Clouds, cool temperatures and savvy travelers kept the wet activity to a
minimum. The one outlier was a few deeper
slides in from explosive control work upper Big Cottonwood, where a couple layers
of snow pulled out in several steep chutes, resulting in substantial debris
piles.
Today’s main avalanche
concern is the new snow, which could fail on a light density layer within the new
snow or where it bonds poorly to the old snow surface. The snow is landing on a variety of old snow
surfaces, from soft powder to thin and thick sun crusts. The snow’s bonding and sensitivity will vary,
so be alert to changes as you switch aspects and elevations today. The heaviest snowfall is forecast for this
afternoon and evening, so instabilities will increase as the day goes on. New snow slides will be easiest to trigger any
time precipitation rates increase or the winds pick up and start to drift snow. Most of today’s instabilities should be
manageable for the experienced traveler with careful slope cuts. But be alert for changing conditions, and be aware
that there might be a few isolated places where it is possible to triggered a deeper, wider slide, taking out two storms worth
of snow.
Bottom Line for the
Mountain Weather:
A slightly disorganized Pacific
storm system will move across the area in pieces for the next 24 hours. Snowfall will be light snow for most of the
day, with occasional bursts of heavier snow, mostly this afternoon and evening. 6 to 9 inches of snow expected today, with temperatures
in the low 30’s at 8,000’ and the upper teens at 10,000’. Today’s westerly winds will be light, in the
10 to 20 mph range, with gusts in the 20’s.
Lightning is possible today, especially this afternoon. Winds will shift to the northwest tonight,
and increase slightly, with gusts into the 30’s, and another 3 to 6 inches of
snow is possible tonight in areas favored by this northwesterly flow. Cool with snow showers on Thursday. Drying with slowly warming temperatures
Friday as high pressure moves in, followed by a drastic warm up Saturday and
Sunday.
Announcements
The Wasatch Powderbird
Guides skied in
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).
Watch video tututorials and fieldwork from UAC staff at our YouTube
channel.
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 see any avalanches or interesting snow conditions, 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.