Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

Avalanche ADVISORY

Good morning. This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Sunday November 30, 2003 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

It was a warm night under mostly cloudy skies. Both ridge-top and mountain valley temperatures barely dipped into the low 30’s overnight. It has cooled off in the past few hours and currently it’s in the upper 20’s at 10,000’. Winds are light and generally from the west blowing at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges. No measurable new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours. There are still some patches of damp, creamy powder out there, though conditions pale in comparison to recent days. Protected upper elevation north facing slopes will be your best bet as mid and low elevation snow is damp and sunny aspects are crusty.

Avalanche Conditions:

It was a great run while it lasted and this November has been, by all accounts, the best in recent memory. This seemed too good to be true and yesterdays rain/mist event coupled with unseasonably warm temperatures put the brakes on the fine conditions we’ve been experiencing. It’s definitely a day to footnote on your cerebral hard-drive, as this will add an unusual crust to our relatively homogenous snowpack.

We’ll need switch gears today and think about what are usually springtime avalanche concerns and that is the possibility of wet slides and sluffs. With another warm day on tap and the possibility of receiving more rain today, I’d suspect that we could see another round of shallow wet sluffs on steep low and mid elevation slopes.

At higher elevations above timberline the snow surface is cooler and the snowpack pretty much glued in place. However, in steep rocky terrain where snow depths average about 2’ or less, the snowpack is becoming weak and punchy. This will be something to keep an eye on for the future when it decides to snow again.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW today at all elevations.

Should we receive any significant amounts of rain today or if the sun comes out in earnest, the avalanche danger could rise to MODERATE on steep, low and mid elevation slopes.

Mountain Weather:

Another tropical day is forecast as a mild and somewhat moist westerly flow remains over the region. Today we can expect mostly cloudy skies, light rain or snow showers, and continued warm temperatures. Highs at 8,000’ will be in the upper 40’s and at 10,000’ in the mid to upper 30’s. Overnight lows will dip into the upper 20’s. It should be breezy along the ridges with winds out of the west at speeds of 15-25 mph. Monday looks to be partly cloudy and mild with a colder weather system moving into the region Monday night into Tuesday. We should get a couple of inches of snow during the day and then it looks like partly cloudy skies and seasonable temperatures ‘til next weekend.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your observations are an important component to this program. So if you see or trigger an avalanche give us a call at 801-231-2170 or 1-800-662-4140.

Also, if you’d like to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk and/or field day give us a call at 801-524-5304.

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.

This advisory will be updated by 7:30 on Wednesday morning.

Thanks for calling.