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, December 7, 2003 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

 

Current conditions:

Skies are mostly cloudy, temperatures are in the mid 20’s at 10,000’, and winds are out of the southwest at speeds of 15-25 mph along the ridges. Only about an inch of new snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, but surprisingly good riding and turning conditions can be found on protected, north facing, mid and upper elevation slopes.

 

Avalanche Conditions:

The much-advertised storm is still on its way, though it looks like frontal passage will be later in the day than previously expected. All in all I think we’ll see a good shot of snow for the region and I’d expect the avalanche danger to be on the rise once the storm gets rolling. Today you’ll want to be alert to changing weather conditions, as this will have a direct impact on the avalanche danger.

While the warm temperatures this past week didn’t do a whole lot to improve the quality of the surface snow conditions, it has helped our relatively shallow snowpack maintain some structure and strength. Though it’s not quite the bomber snowpack we started off with. Yesterday I was still finding two distinct weaknesses within the pack. First off, at the surface the snow has grown weak, especially on upper elevation northerly facing slopes. How well the new snow bonds to the old snow will be the immediate avalanche concern today.

Secondly, in areas that have a shallow snowpack the snow near the ground has grown weak and punchy as well. These weaknesses are pockety and most prevalent in rocky, mid and upper elevation terrain where total snow depths are less than about 2 ½’.

In addition there are plenty of slick crusts out there at all elevations and these will provide ideal bed surfaces for avalanches to run on as the new snow stacks up today.

 

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning on all aspects and at all elevations. Both natural and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.

The avalanche danger could rise to MODERATE by days end, especially on steep mid and upper elevation slopes with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches will be possible.

 

Mountain Weather:

A mild southwest flow this morning will transition into a colder, and hopefully, snowy weather pattern once the cold air arrives, about midday. Temperatures will be cooling throughout the day into the 20’s at 8,000’ and upper teens at 10,000’. Overnight lows will be near 10 degrees. Winds will be out of the southwest this morning blowing at speeds of 15-25 mph along the upper elevation ridges. By midday the winds should switch to the west and calm down a bit as the cold front passes. Snow totals look to be in the 5-10” range for today with an additional 5-10” tonight. Things wind down for us on Monday as a northwest flow kicks in so we can expect light snow showers and cold temperatures. The extended forecast calls for a break in the action on Tuesday and unsettled weather for the remainder of the week.

 

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 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Thanks for calling.