In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center, Utah Department of Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management, Salt Lake County, and Utah State Parks
Saturday,
March 15, 2003
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Good Morning. This is Evelyn Lees with the
Current Conditions:
Skies are mostly clear this
morning, and temperatures a welcome 5 to 10 degrees cooler than yesterday
morning. They are currently in the upper
20s to low 30s at most elevations. Yesterdays
quick hitting little disturbance dropped 2-6 of dense snow in the Cottonwoods,
above about 8,000, with light rain below.
The northern
Beneath the new snow, the old
snow surface should be well frozen this morning and supportable on most aspects.
Avalanche Conditions:
The only avalanche activity
reported yesterday was wet slides or sluffs that occurred south of
The strong winds may create a
few isolated drifts from yesterdays 2 to 6 of new snow, so as always, avoid any recent drifts of wind blown snow on steep
slopes.
And finally, deep slab
avalanches are still possible in the same areas that have been haunting us all
year. Snow pits I dug yesterday on upper
elevation, shady slopes with a relatively shallow snow pack showed that some of
the sugary snow layers have remained remarkably weak. The most likely way to trigger one of these
deeper slides would be with a big trigger of several people or snow machines, or
by getting on a slope approaching 40 degrees or steeper with a shallow, weak
snow pack.
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger today is
MODERATE on steep northwest,
north, northeast, and easterly facing slopes that have had a thin snowpack most
of the year. This is only a small
percentage of the backcountry terrain, and the majority of the terrain has a generally
LOW avalanche danger
this morning. The avalanche danger may
rise to MODERATE on
and below steep slopes if they heat up more than expected.
Mountain Weather:
General Information:
The Wasa
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
please leave a message on our answer machine at (801) 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140, or email to [email protected]
or fax to 801-524-6301. 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.
Ethan Greene will update this advisory by
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: