Wasatch Cache National Forest

In partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche 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

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Good Afternoon. This is Ethan Greene with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your backcountry avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the Wasatch Range. Today is Wednesday, April 16, 2003, and it’s about 5:30 in the afternoon.

Current Conditions:

Were you depressed after our last snow storm? Do you get grumpy when extratropical cyclones miraculously dissolve over the West Desert or split as they hit the Utah/Nevada border? If you answered yes to any of these questions you might consider turning off the Weather Channel for the next few days.

Today under mostly clear skies temperatures climbed into the low 40’s at 8,000’ and low 30’s at 10,000’. The winds have been from the south in the 10 mph range. Our spring snowpack continues to be quite variable. Today the sun created some fairly sloppy snow on south aspects below about 9,500’. But a little bit of shade was all it took to keep the snow dry even down to 8,500’. Tonight temperatures will drop well below freezing creating a mostly supportable surface by morning.

Tomorrow the avalanche conditions will be changing. In the morning we could get some heating and the danger of wet avalanches will slowly rise. By mid day I expect building clouds, cooling temperatures, and a little precipitation. Watch out for wet sluffs in low elevation areas especially if we get rain. Otherwise the danger of old snow slides should decrease during the day, and with only an inch of new snow expected the danger of new snow avalanches will remain low in most areas.

Bottom Line (SLC, Park City, Ogden and Provo Area Mountains):

On Thursday the avalanche danger will be mostly LOW. As snow accumulates in the afternoon the avalanche danger may rise to MODERATE on steep slopes with recent wind drifts.

Western Uinta Mountains: Click Here

Logan – call 435-797-4146 or Click Here.

Mountain Weather:

The ridge of high pressure, currently over the Great Basin, will give way to another broad Pacific trough tomorrow. Tonight skies will be mostly clear with some high clouds. Temperatures will dip to near 20 degrees at 8,000’ and to near 30 degrees at 10,000’. The winds will be from the south in the 10 mph range. Tomorrow the skies will be partly cloudy in the morning. Convective clouds will build during the day leading to mostly cloudy skies by mid day and showers in the afternoon. Thunder and lightning are possible in the afternoon. The rain/snow line should be near 8,500’ and drop overnight. I expect about an inch of snow to accumulate by the end of the day with an additional 2 to 4 inches overnight. This broad trough will bring unsettled weather to the mountains through Saturday. This system is quite similar to our last. We may only get a few inches of solid precipitation, but with that opening line I did my best to make it snow.

General Information:

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.

Bruce Tremper will update this advisory on Thursday afternoon.

Thanks for calling!

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National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Snow.

For an explanation of avalanche danger ratings:

http://www.avalanche.org/usdanger.htm