In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.
Good evening and happy
holiday! This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center
with your avalanche and mountain weather update for the western Uinta
Mountains. Today is Thursday, November 24, 2005 and it’s 9:00 p.m. I’ll begin
issuing regularly scheduled avalanche advisories- Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday
and all holidays- once there’s enough snow on the ground.
Announcements:
The Moffit Peak weather station is back in operation. This site was made possible through generous donations
by BRORA, The Utah Snowmobile Association, and the National Weather Service. You can view data by clicking here.
For avalanche photos click here.
We’re looking for feedback on
our new advisory page. Click here
to check out the new “MOCK UP”. I’d like to hear what you think and you can email
me at [email protected] with
comments and suggestions.
Current Conditions:
The past few weeks have been hard on our shallow snowpack. Most of the sunny slopes have reverted to their fall colors and are brown and snow free. The shady slopes, though, still have snow above 9,000’ and depths average about 2’ or so at the higher elevations. Unfortunately, the clear cold nights during the recent dry spell has turned the snowpack weak and sugary, creating a fragile house of cards. Over the weekend a series of strong storms should impact the area and the extra weight of the new snow on our fragile snowpack will surely bring an increase in avalanche activity.
Mountain Weather: Better trade in the Hawaiian shirts for some warm woolies! A major change is on tap for the region starting late Friday night, when a strong cold front sweeps through the area from Alaska. Snowfall should start late Friday or early Saturday morning, but right now total snow amounts are still a little shaky with this first impulse. A second, colder, and possibly stronger system should slide into the area late Saturday and that’s when the snow should start to stack up and temperatures will nose dive. By Sunday morning, high temperatures at 8,000’ will be in the low 20’s.
General
Information:
I’ll have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and
running again this year at the Nobletts trailhead. Finally, if you haven’t taken one of our free snowmobile specific
avalanche awareness classes, schedule one now before things get too crazy. Give
me a call at 801-231-2170 and I’d be happy to tailor a talk for your group.
I’m interested in what you’re
seeing especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Call 1-800-662-4140, or
801-231-2170, or email to [email protected]
or fax to 801-524-6301 and fill us in with all the details.
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’ll update this
advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Saturday November 26,2005.
Thanks for
calling!