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 Friday, January 2, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Snow started late last night, though new snow totals are difficult to gauge because of the hurricane force winds associated with this system. From what I can gather we’ve received 6”-10” overnight. Temperatures are beginning to cool down and it’s currently 16 degrees at 10,000’. Winds are switching to the west and relaxing a bit with hourly averages in the 20’s and gusts in the mid 30’s.

Avalanche Conditions:

An AVALANCHE WARNING is in effect for the western Uinta Mountains and the avalanche danger is HIGH today. Very strong winds and recent snowfall will make both natural and human triggered avalanches likely today. People without well developed route finding and rescue skills should avoid backcountry travel today.

What a way to ring in the New Year! It’s been a wind-a-thon the past few days and yesterday’s sustained wind event was certainly the crescendo. For nearly 24 hours the winds howled at all elevations moving a tremendous amount of snow around, forming deep and dangerous slabs in some very odd locations. This was an unusual weather event and I’d suspect we would see some unusual avalanches as a result.

Today’s avalanches have the possibility to be big, deep, and very dangerous. Triggering a slide today could result in a devastating outcome.

Even if you’re playing on low angle terrain today be aware of both people and steep slopes above and adjacent to you.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is HIGH today on all steep slopes at all elevations, especially those with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Both human triggered and natural avalanches are likely. People without well-developed route finding and rescue skills should avoid backcountry travel today.

Mountain Weather:

A cold front is moving into the area this morning, which will generate a good shot of snow for the region and we should see 6”-12” today and another 1”-3” tonight. Temperatures will be cooling and highs at 10,000’ will be in the low teens and at 8,000’ near 20 degrees. Overnight lows will be near 10 degrees. Winds will be out of the west blowing at speeds of 20-35 mph along the ridges and should decrease later in the day. The winds will switch back to the southwest tonight ahead of another impulse slated to affect the region on Saturday. Unsettled weather will be with us through Sunday.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your snowpack and avalanche observations could help to save someone’s life! 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 Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004.

Thanks for calling.