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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
Utah Avalanche Center
Home page is: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/
Avalanche advisory
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Good Morning. This is Bruce Tremper with the Forest Service
Utah
Current Conditions:
We’re still doing mid day
updates until about Wednesday morning, when it looks like winter will finally return.
Avalanche Conditions:
You should get out today above
the layers of smog in the valley and enjoy the warm, calm, sunny weather in the
mountains because Tuesday night it looks like we’ll be returning to winter
again, and then, even more winter by the weekend. The main reason to get up in the mountains is
not to work on your suntan, but to memorize exactly where the old snow exists
and where it’s melted out to bare ground, because with any significant load of
snow, we will have widespread avalanches on any slope with pre-existing snow
and very little activity where the new snow falls on bare ground. Avalanche forecasting doesn’t get much easier
than that. The clear skies over the past
month have rotted the old snow into deep layers of granular snow, which have
about as much strength as a pile of tortilla chips. This rotten snow exists mostly at elevations
above 9,000’ on northwest, north and northeast facing slopes. The surface snow is still the weakest snow
with several inches of extremely sugary, faceted snow, topped off with what
Evelyn calls “trophy-sized” surface hoar crystals the nearly size of potato
chips.
Bottom Line (SLC,
The avalanche danger is still LOW today, but expect it to rise on Tuesday night if we get new snow and wind
and it may become even more dangerous by this weekend.
Avalanche Tip of the Day:
As the weak storm arrives on
Tuesday night, we will carefully wa
Mountain Weather:
Well, everyone has been
wishing for snow and it looks like we’ll get our wish. There is a significant change in the weather
pattern brewing for this week. Starting
Tuesday night, we’ll get a few inches of snow with some fairly strong winds,
which will certainly increase the avalanche danger on the slopes with
pre-existing snow. Then, after a break
on Thursday and Friday, the long range weather charts continue to insist on a
nice-sized storm for the weekend. In the
mean time, today will continue to be warm and sunny with 8,000’ temperatures in
the mid to upper 30’s and the ridge top winds light from the south and
southwest. Tuesday, we will have increasing
clouds with snow showers Tuesday night.
General Information:
Craig Gordon will be giving
an avalanche awareness talk in
If you’re planning on buying
an avalanche rescue beacon for someone you love this Christmas, check out the
recent tests of various brands of avalanche beacons on the web. Point your browser to www.avalanche.org and click on Salt Lake,
then on Education. At the same location,
you can find a complete list of avalanche talks and multi-day classes.
To report backcountry snow
and avalanche conditions, especially if you observe or trigger an avalanche,
call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, or email to uac@avalanche.org 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.
Tom Kimbrough will update this advisory on Tuesday.
Thanks for calling!
________________________________________________________________________
National
Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.
For an explanation of
avalanche danger ratings: