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
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, click HERE.
Good morning, this is Evelyn
Lees with the
Current Conditions:
If you love classic cold,
snowy storm days, this could be the day to call in well and head into the
backcountry. Snowfall began shortly
after midnight, and as of 6 am snow totals are in the 3 to 6” range in the
In wind sheltered areas, turning
conditions will just get better and better all day long as the snow piles up. Low angle slopes will be fast and fun in the cold,
fluffy snow. In more exposed mid and
upper elevation terrain, wind drifts will form along the higher ridges and in open
bowls.
Avalanche Conditions:
With
more wind and snow in the forecast, there will be an increasing avalanche
danger today. Backcountry travelers will
be mostly dealing with new snow problems – sluffing, new snow soft slabs, and
sensitive drifts of wind blown snow. The
snowfall amounts will be elevation and area dependent, with the higher
elevations receiving the most snow and wind.
Expect sluffing of the new snow on steep slopes of all aspects. In areas with wind, there will be sensitive
wind drifts a foot or more deep that a person can easily trigger on a steep
slope. The wind drifts will be most
common on northeast through southeast slopes.
Careful slope cuts and cornice
kicking may be effective today.
There
are a few isolated areas where a slide triggered in the new snow could step
down into a deeper weak layer. Yesterday,
resort control work with explosives along the PC ridge line triggered two small
hard slabs on northeasterly facing slopes.
They were 50 to 75’ wide, up to 2’ deep and running near the ground. These were isolated pockets in rocky, shallow
snow pack areas. More widespread through
out the range is mid pack weak layer, but again, I think it would take a large
load to trigger this layer.
Bottom Line (
The avalanche danger is MODERATE on upper elevation slopes steeper than 35 degrees, especially
with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. In mid and upper elevation areas that receive the
predicted snow and wind, the avalanche danger will rise
to CONSIDERABLE later today on steep wind loaded
slopes. Wind sheltered, mid and low elevation
terrain has a LOW avalanche danger today.
Mountain Weather:
The Pacific storm system moving through the area will put northern
3-Day Table |
3-Day Graph |
7-Day Table |
For specific digital forecasts for selected mountain areas from the
National Weather Service, click the links below or choose your own specific
location at the National
Weather Service Digital Forecast Page:
General
Information:
If
you are getting into the backcountry, please give us a call and let us know
what you’re seeing, especially if you trigger an avalanche. You can leave a message at 524-5304 or
1-800-662-4140. Or you can e-mail an
observation to uac@avalanche .org, or you can fax an
observation 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.
I
will update this advisory on Thursday morning.
Thanks for calling.
_____________________________________________________________________________
For more detailed weather
information go to our Mountain Weather Advisory
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings:
http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm