Salt Lake Avalanche Advisory

Forecaster: Drew Hardesty

BOTTOM LINE

Danger by aspect and elevation on slopes approaching 35° or steeper.
(click HERE for tomorrow's danger rating)


Danger Rose Tutorial

Saturday's instabilities with the high precipitation rates now seem long ago. The overall danger is LOW, unless you count the prospect of ruining gear or your body on the thin coverage out there. One observer wanted a skull and crossbones for the south and westerly aspects for this - perhaps a new icon?


CURRENT CONDITIONS

Reminder! It's the new moon and all the old avalanche forecasters from Tennessee recommend catching your first glimpse of it with nothing in your hands. Worked well for Kimbrough to keep him mostly out of trouble for years. Skies are clear under the small dome of high pressure. The stagnant weather has light winds, freezing temperatures at the highest elevations and cooler air filtering into the mountain valleys and basins. The Thursday/Saturday storms have settled to 5-8" with overall depths ranging from 1-2'.....Coverage is threadbare at best with rocks and stumps awaiting every turn.

Please extend courtesy to the barely opened and unopened ski areas as they hustle to get their winter operations in place. Remember too that they are not doing any avalanche control so treat in-bounds familiar terrain as the backcountry.


RECENT ACTIVITY

None.


THREAT #1

WHERE PROBABILITY SIZE TREND
No probability identified.
No size identified.
No trend identified.

Saturday's instabilities seem like a thing of the past and all the wind whales up high are welded in place. Not that there isn't anything happening in the snowpack: high pressure will facilitate the continued development of surface hoar and weakening of the snow surface. Weakening snow abounds above the old October crust and just beneath the wafer thin crust on the surface prior to last Thursday's storm. My field day yesterday into upper Big Cottonwood. Spatial variability of the snowpack is pronounced in the early seasons - this year is no different.


MOUNTAIN WEATHER

We'll have clear skies, light winds and warm mountain temperatures. 8000' and 10,000' temps will be in the 40's and 30's, respectively. Increasing southwesterly winds tonight will usher through a weak cold front for tomorrow afternoon - we should see at best a few flakes and allow the inversion to mix-out. High pressure rebuilds, albeit briefly, ahead of two storms for the weekend.


GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

nvision Utah is looking for input on the “Wasatch Canyons Tomorrow” update of the County's 1989 Plan, in partnership with Salt Lake City, the State of Utah and the US Forest Service. There is an online survey “Wasatch Canyons Tomorrow” at http://www.envisionutah.org/index.html .

We will be issuing intermittent morning or afternoon avalanche advisories as conditions change.

Our web site is now formatted for iPhone. You can also download a free iPhone application from Canyon Sports to display the Bottom Line. Search for Utah Avalanche on the Apple's iPhone Apps page or in iTunes.

If you want to get this avalanche advisory e-mailed to you daily click HERE.

For a text only version, the link is on the left side bar, near the top.

UDOT highway avalanche control work info can be found by calling (801) 975-4838. Our statewide toll free line is 1-888-999-4019 (early morning, option 8).

Donate to your favorite non-profit – The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center. 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, please visit ourFriends page.

We appreciate avalanche and snow observations. If there’s something we should know about give us a call at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email us at uac@utahavalanchecenter.org. (Fax 801-524-6301).


This information does not apply to developed ski areas or highways where avalanche control is normally done.  This advisory is from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content. This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.


This advisory provided by the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with:

The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation, Utah Division of Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority and the friends of the La Sal Avalanche Center. See our Sponsors Page for a complete list.