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, March 27, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Skies are mostly cloudy this morning and temperatures are downright cold at the upper elevations. Most mountaintop locations are currently in the low teens and winds are out of the west at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges. Yesterdays storm was quite elevation dependent with the rain/snow line hovering at about 8,000’. While only a couple of inches of snow fell down at the trailheads, the upper elevations picked up about 10” of fairly dense, heavy snow. Riding and turning conditions should be rather good up high today. You’d better get after it before it turns into heavy wet glop, as warm high-pressure returns for Sunday.

Avalanche Conditions:

Old man winter came out of hibernation and yesterdays ‘sleeper’ storm turned out to be a good snow producer for us. At the mid and upper elevations, where the bulk of the snow fell, winds were strong enough to blow the new snow around. This formed fairly sensitive wind drifts on the leeward side of ridgelines and around terrain features such as chutes and gullies. With plenty of slick crusts out there for avalanches to run on, slides were moving faster and traveling a little farther than you might expect.

Today the wind drifts might not be quite as sensitive but the avalanches will still pack a powerful punch. If you’re getting into steep mid and upper elevation terrain carefully evaluate the slope and the consequences before diving into it. Carefully placed slope cuts will act as a good defensive tool.

At lower elevations and in steep rocky terrain with a shallow, weak, snowpack, avalanches triggered today may step down into damp, rotten snow near the ground.

And finally, while clear skies aren’t forecast for today, should the sun poke through the clouds the danger of wet avalanches will rise rapidly.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. On slopes less steep than 30 degrees the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Should the sun come out for any length of time today or even if there are high thin clouds, the danger of wet avalanches may rapidly increase to CONSIDERABLE on and below all steep, snow-covered slopes. Natural avalanches will be possible.

Mountain Weather:

Low pressure will continue to influence our weather today giving us mostly cloudy skies and scattered snow showers, though accumulations should only be in the 1”-3” range. Temperatures will be much cooler today with highs at 10,000’ in the upper teens and at 8,000’ near 30 degrees. Overnight lows will dip into the mid teens. Winds will be out of the west through northwest blowing at speeds of 15-25 mph along the ridges. Skies will begin to clear tonight as high pressure builds and Sunday looks to be partly cloudy with high temperatures about 10 degrees warmer than today. A return to spring is on tap for Monday through Wednesday.

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, Mar.28, 2004.

Thanks for calling.