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, April 3, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Overnight, easterly winds were howling along the ridges, gusting to over 50 mph at the more exposed locations. Fortunately they’re starting to slowly die down and as of 6:00 A.M. hourly wind speed averages are in the low 20’s with an occasional gust in the upper 30’s along the highest peaks. Skies are mostly cloudy this morning and temperatures are in the upper 20’s at most mountaintop locations. With temperatures a few degrees cooler than yesterday at this time, I’d suspect the snowpack would’ve received a good surface refreeze and will be fairly supportable this morning. At the upper elevations, snow surface conditions range from pseudo corn-like snow on the south aspects to sadistically entertaining heavy, damp powder on the north facing slopes. In between it’s a mixed bag and many slopes can barely support your weight, especially later in the day.

Avalanche Conditions:

If you ever wanted to be alone in the mountains on a Saturday, now’s your chance. Over the past couple of days it’s rather quiet around here and I haven’t seen or heard of any new avalanche activity. As a matter of fact I’ve been hard pressed to see another person other than my field partner. While it might be a good day to get your taxes done it’s not all doom and gloom out there and any day on the snow is better than none at all. On the bright side, at least there’s no lightening in today’s forecast.

As far as the snowpack is concerned the usual spring ritual of getting on the snow early while it’s supportable and off it once things get wet and sloppy still apply. While natural avalanche activity is unlikely today, if you’re getting into steep terrain I think you could still trigger some sizeable wet sluffs, especially late in the day. Once these get going down hill they have the possibility of gouging deeper into the snowpack and could create a sizable wet slab, particularly in terrain where the snowpack is shallow and weak.

The snow surface may take a while to heat up today, but as it does look for the obvious signs of heating such as roller balls careening down the slope. During the heat of the day these roller balls are getting big enough to knock you off your skis or smash the windshield of your machine.

Bottom Line:

The danger of wet avalanches is generally LOW this morning and will rise to MODERATE on steep slopes with daytime heating. Human triggered avalanches will be possible as the snow surface heats up.

Mountain Weather:

A nearly stationary low-pressure system over southern Arizona will push some moisture our way this afternoon and tonight giving us mostly cloudy skies with a slight chance of measurable precipitation. High temperatures at 10,000’ will be in the mid 30’s and at 8,000’ near 47 degrees. Overnight lows will drop into the upper 20’s. Winds will be out of the east and southeast at speeds of 15-25 mph with gusts in the 30’s along the ridges. They should begin to relax a bit in the next couple of hours. The extended forecast looks kind of messy, as the low slowly creeps to the east. For Sunday through about Wednesday we can expect mostly cloudy skies with a continued chance of rain and light snow showers each day.

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, Apr.4, 2004.

Thanks for calling.