In
partnership with: The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department of
Public Safety Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management,
To have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day free of charge, visit: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16351h
For photos of avalanches and
avalanche phenomenon, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/photos_03-04.htm (Updated
3/25)
Photos sent in by observers
throughout the season visit: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html (Updated
3/12)
For a list of backcountry avalanche
activity, visit: http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Avalanche_List.htm (Updated
3/25)
Early morning preliminary information by about 6:00 am: 801-364-1591
Avalanche advisory
Thursday, March 25, 2004, 7:30 am
Good
morning, this is
Current Conditions:
Yesterday, the snow surface conditions actually improved quite a bit—yes, that’s right IMPROVED--the first time after a number of days of deteriorating conditions. The snow surface was supportable at most elevations but you were still sinking through into the mush at lower elevations especially around snow line. This morning would probably be a good day to get out as temperatures are about 4 degrees cooler than yesterday morning, which in turn are 4 degrees cooler than the morning before that. This morning the temperatures are around 40 degrees at 8,000’ and around freezing along the ridge tops. Ridge top winds are 20 mph from the southwest. Then, we’ll have a good, old-fashioned, cold front tomorrow.
Avalanche Conditions:
Cooler temperatures and wind has dramatically calmed down the avalanche activity from wet sluffs, wet slabs and glide avalanches of the past several days. Yesterday, the biggest hazard was getting zapped by lightning if you lingered on the ridge tops into the afternoon. Today should be mostly stable but you should continue to be suspicious of steep, soggy slopes, especially in thin snowpack areas. Although this will be a very isolated problem, I should mention that even if a saturated snowpack has a thin, frozen skin on top. you can sometimes trigger what we call “corn slab” avalanches.
Bottom
Line for the
The avalanche danger is LOW today on
all slopes with the exception of pockets of moderate
danger on steep, slopes with thin, saturated snowpack.
Mountain Weather:
If you’re already nostalgic for winter, you’re in
luck because we have a brief remember-what-winter-is-like party this Friday and
Saturday with dramatically colder temperatures and even some good old-fashioned
snow in the mountains. I can hardly
remember what fresh snow looks and feels like, since it’s been nearly three
weeks since we’ve had any. In the mean
time, today we will have ridge top temperatures just above freezing with 8,000’
temperatures climbing into the lower 50’s. Ridge top winds will be 20 mph from the
southwest. We will have partly cloudy
skies today with a few thunderstorms going through the very northern parts of
For specific digital forecasts for the
General Information:
The Wasatch Powderbird Guides didn’t fly yesterday and they will be doing some minor work for Snowbird Ski Area today and a short run for a film crew in American Fork.
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.
Andrew McLean will update this advisory Friday morning.
Thanks for calling.
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