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 Saturday, January 31, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Last nights storm stalled over the region for a while and we were able to pick up 4”-6” of very light density snow. Currently under mostly cloudy skies light snow is falling and so are the temperatures. Right now it’s 8 degrees at most mountaintop locations and winds are out of the northwest at speeds of 10-15 mph with an occasional gust in the mid 20’s on the more exposed ridgelines. Turning and riding conditions will have vastly improved over the past 24 hours.

Avalanche Conditions:

As if our snowpack isn’t complicated enough, we have a new addition in the form of a rain/rime crust, which occurred on all aspects up to about 9,500’ on Thursday. Last nights cold snow probably hasn’t bonded well to this crust and I’d suspect that most of our avalanche activity today will be confined to this crust/new snow interface. In steep wind sheltered terrain the new snow will be sluffing easily whereas up high there will be some sensitive shallow wind drifts that will have formed on the leeward side of ridgelines.

Looking into the future, we haven’t received enough new snow or wind to wash out all the weak snow created during the January thaw. Which is unfortunate because now that weakness is buried and well preserved. With dribs and drabs of new snow slowly stacking up, this weak snow is getting buried deeper in the snowpack and we’re only prolonging the inevitable. Once it starts storming again, hang on to your hats, because things will start to rock and roll and we’ll probably see slopes avalanching in unusual places.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today at and above timberline on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

In wind-sheltered terrain and on slopes less steep than 35 degrees at all elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

Today we can expect partly cloudy skies with an occasional snow shower or two, though the airmass is beginning to dry out. With cold air in place high temperatures at 10,000’ will be near 5 degrees and at 8,000’ in the mid teens. Overnight lows will be in the single digits. Winds will be out of the north and northwest blowing at speeds of 10-15 mph and should be dying throughout the day. A drying trend continues into Sunday and skies should begin to clear, though temperatures will remain quite cold. On Monday clouds and wind will be on the increase as another weak system slides into the region late in the day and it looks like the weather pattern stays fairly active through mid week. Unfortunately there are no big storms in sight.

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.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb.1, 2004.

Thanks for calling.