In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.
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 Wednesday, March 24, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.
Current conditions:
It was yet another warm night with low temperatures
dipping below freezing only on the highest peaks. Currently under partly cloudy
skies temperatures are in the mid 30’s at 10,000’ and in the low 40’s at most
lower elevation trailheads. It’s pretty grim out there and the riding and
turning conditions have gone from hero to zero. There may be an old, tired
patch or two of soft settled snow on the most protected upper elevation shady
slopes. Unfortunately to get to it you’ll have to endure either frozen teeth
chattering old tracks or bottomless slush. Supportable crusts on the south
facing slopes will be limited to the highest elevations.
Avalanche Conditions:
Honey, I shrunk the snowpack! No it’s not the title
to a sequel of a popular family feel-good movie coming to a theater near you
soon. It’s more a reflection of the sad state of affairs our snowpack is in. With
five nights of marginal refreezes the snow is going fast. The south facing
slopes have taken the hardest hit with many slopes completely melted out. On
the other side of the compass, north-facing aspects are hanging in there, but
the snow has the consistency and strength of a frozen margarita, particularly
at lower and mid elevations. The pack appears to be adjusting to the recent
heat wave and has been pretty well behaved as it makes the transition to a
spring-like snowpack. Today’s slightly cooler temperatures and wind may help to
keep wet slide activity to a minimum. However the usual precautions of getting
off of steep slopes during the heat of the day should still be practiced.
Natural avalanches are becoming less frequent, though it wouldn’t be out of the
question for one to pop out with daytime heating, particularly in steep, rocky terrain
where the snowpack is shallow and weak.
Looking into the future, temperatures are expected
to drop in the next few days and this should help to squelch the wet slide activity.
However, on an esoteric note, as the snow surface becomes more supportable
remember it will be still be sitting on top of wet, loose, uncohesive snow. Strong
snow above a weakness is never a good combination in the snowpack. During the
expected cooling trend, the added weight of a backcountry traveler may be
enough to collapse the snowpack leading to an increased possibility of human
triggered corn slab avalanches.
Bottom Line:
The danger of wet sluffs and slabs is MODERATE today on all steep slopes
and human triggered avalanches are possible. While more the exception than the
rule, be aware natural avalanches may still occur during the heat of the day.
You’ll want to get off of and out from underneath steep slopes as the snow
heats up.
Mountain Weather:
The air mass remains
mild and rather unstable and a passing shower or thunderstorm could occur later
today into this evening. For most of the day we should see partly cloudy skies,
continued mild temperatures, and moderate southwest winds. Highs today at
10,000 will be near 40 degrees and at 8,000’ in the low to mid 50’s. Overnight
lows will be near 30 degrees. Winds will be out of the southwest at speeds of 10-20
mph with gusts in the low 30’s along the highest ridges. Drier, high pressure
will rebound on Thursday and temperatures should be about 5 degrees cooler. Friday
will start off quite mild though a vigorous cold front should slide into the region
around midday dropping temperatures significantly. There is moisture associated
with this front and we may even see a decent shot of snow developing late in
the day that should linger into Saturday, but the jury is still out as far as snow
totals are concerned.
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 Saturday, Mar.27, 2004.
Thanks for
calling.