Wasatch
Cache National Forest
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
The FS
Utah Avalanche Center ’s Home page has moved!
Our
new URL is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
please update your Bookmarks!
Avalanche advisory
TUESDAY
APRIL 16, 2002
NEW!
If you want to see photos of
recent avalanches, click here.
If you want recent archives
of this advisory, click here.
Check out our new avalanche
and backcountry observation page, CLICK HERE!
Hello this the
The
best place to start when making your own avalanche forecast is with the
weather. You can get up to date weather
information by listening to NOAA Weather Radio or by looking on the internet (www.wrh.noaa.gov/Saltlake). The MesoWest, a service of
the Department of Meteorology at the
Wet Avalanches:
Wet
avalanches occur every spring when melt water runs through the snowpack and
erodes the ice bonds in buried weak layers. Fortunately they are usually easy to
predict. To avoid wet slides, travel in
avalanche terrain when the snow is still hard and frozen. During
periods of warm weather remember to start early, end early, and pay attention to
the overnight temperatures. Remember
that large wet avalanches often release after multiple nights without a solid
refreeze. In radical terrain such as
the steep rock slabs in Stairs Gulch and Broad’s Fork, large, wet slabs can
come down almost any time during warm conditions.
Before you head out, it’s
best to get on the Internet to check the temperatures in the mountains. Unfortunately, most of the automated weather
stations in the mountains are operated by the ski areas, and once they close,
they also take down their weather stations.
Snowbird stays open usually into May and
Finally, keep in mind is that
the weak faceted snow that brought us many large and dangerous avalanches this
season is still buried in the snowpack.
This layer could be reactivated by increased melt water from a sustained
warm period, or by an increase in load from a large spring snow storm,
especially on upper elevation, north facing slopes.
New snow:
When spring storms roll in, avalanches
often occur within the new snow, especially on steep slopes with recent wind
drifts. If you’re in the mountains after
a spring snow storm, check to see how well the new snow is sticking to the old
snow surface and whether there are weak layers within the new snow. You can easily do this by digging down with
your hand or jumping on small test slopes. As always be careful around fresh wind drifts,
and remember that once the sun or warm temperatures hit the new snow, the
danger of wet sluffs will suddenly rise.
We have closed for the season
but the potential for avalanches will remain until the snow melts. When you’re wandering through the hills this
spring, don’t forget to look at the world through your avalanche eyes.
Even
though we are closed for the season we would still like to hear about any
avalanche activity. You can always call
and leave a message at (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140. We
have a new avalanche and backcountry observation page that we’d like to
encourage folks to try out. It can be
found on our home website at avalanche.org. You can also 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.
Have
and great and safe spring and summer…we will see you in the fall!
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: