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 14, 2003 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Clouds, temperatures, and winds are all on the rise this morning ahead of a strong cold front that will affect the region later in the day. At most mountaintop locations temperatures are in the mid 20’s and southerly winds are starting to increase, blowing at speeds of 15-25 mph with higher gusts on the more exposed ridgelines. Just an inch of new snow has fallen in the past 24 hrs and yesterdays rime and freezing rain event produced a crust in a variety of locations. The riding and turning conditions have become quite variable, though in wind sheltered terrain pockets of soft settled powder can still be found.

Avalanche Conditions:

It never seems to get boring in the mountains and yesterday’s rime/freezing rain event is one to file in the old cerebral notebook. The crust that this unusual weather event produced varies in strength and thickness throughout the range. To complicate matters some areas escaped this episode entirely. Remember, unusual weather events can produce unusual avalanches. Today’s weather and snow conditions would probably be more conducive to a day of chores and last minute Christmas shopping, however I’d take this opportunity to get out and see where this crust has developed as we have a vigorous storm right at our doorstep. Once this layer is buried it will be harder to detect and could become problematic in the long run.

This crust has probably limited the amount of snow available for transport today, though I’d suspect the strong winds are still blowing snow around and forming wind drifts in the upper elevation terrain. Be aware that new snow slabs will be developing on the lee side of ridges and around terrain features such as chutes, gullies and sub-ridges. In addition the wind may be transporting snow a little further down slope than you might expect.

In steep rocky terrain above timberline there is an isolated possibility that an avalanche could break into deeper, buried weak layers in the snowpack, especially where total snow depths are around 2 ½ ’ or less. There are plenty of natural obstacles out there barely covered over with snow and going for a ride in an avalanche would have nasty consequences. If you’re getting out on the snow in the next couple of days, be aware the avalanche danger will be rising.

Bottom Line:

At low and mid elevations and in wind-sheltered terrain, the avalanche danger is generally LOW today. Both natural and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.

At upper elevations, above timberline the avalanche danger is MODERATE today on any steep slope with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches will be possible.

Mountain Weather:

There is a winter storm warning in effect for late this afternoon through tonight. Before we see any snow we’ll have to deal with warm temperatures and strong winds. Highs today at 10,000’ will be in the upper 20’s and at 8,000’ in the mid 30’s. Overnight lows will be near 10 degrees. Winds will be out of the southwest this morning switching to the west later in day and finally turning northwest after frontal passage. Wind speeds will be in the 15-30 mph range with stronger gusts expected along the more exposed upper elevation ridges. Snow should start late in the afternoon with 1”-2” expected and then once the cold front arrives it should start to snow in earnest. This storm is a quick hitter and storm totals look to be in 6”-12” range. Scattered snow showers, cold temperatures, and gusty northwest winds are on tap for Monday. A clearing trend will develop for the rest of the week as high pressure builds over the area.

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.