In partnership with: Utah Division of State
Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and
AVALANCHE BULLETIN
Wednesday, November 23, 2005 5pm
Good afternoon,
this is Evelyn Lees with the
There will be two showings of the new TGR film
“Tangerine Dream” at Brewvies Thursday, December 1, at 7 and 9 pm. This is a fundraiser for the UAC, sponsored
by our partner, The Friends of the
Next week our staff will be giving two free
avalanche awareness talks. The first is
Tuesday, November 29th at the Salt Lake REI. The second is Thursday, December 1st
at the Sandy REI. Both are at 7pm. These talks are great for all ages and all
types of recreation.
For a quick glance at avalanche classes in the
The annual report for 2004-05 is now on the web.
(Click HERE,
8mb)
Current Conditions:
The slow start to the winter continues, and about the only place to make turns
is on higher elevation slopes, generally above 9,000’. Even there, the total snow depths of one to
two feet will have you scraping the bottom of your boards unless you’re very
careful to stay on slopes with smooth underlying surfaces. The snow is crusty on the sunny slopes, with
soft, recrystalized powder on the shady slopes.
Avalanche Discussion:
Surface
hoar sparkling in the sun, the swoosh of loud powder every turn… Yup, these are the signs
of a weakening snow pack. The long, cold
clear nights are faceting the upper layers of the snowpack, and in some places,
the entire pack has turned to weak, sugary snow. This thick weak layer will create a problem
once we get another storm. However, at
the moment, the snow pack is mostly stable, because there is no slab, or layer
of snow, on top of the weak snow. (Snow
Profile). Since the snowpack
is so shallow and weak, there is a significant danger of hitting rocks and
stumps, some which are lurking just under the snow surface.
Mountain Weather:
High pressure will
remain in place through Thanksgiving Day, before shifting east on Friday. 8,000’ highs will be in the low 50’s and lows
in the upper 20’s. Winds will remain light,
from a northerly direction. The models
are in disagreement over the weekend pattern change, but it looks like there
will be a significant cooling of temperatures, with a chance for mountain snow
on Saturday.
We will update this advisory as conditions warrant. Stay tuned and thanks for calling.
Seasonal Weather History Charts. (NOTE:
USE INTERNET EXPLORER FOR BEST VIEWING)
To
have this advisory automatically e-mailed to you each day, click HERE. (You must re-sign up this season even if you
were on the list last season.)
We
are looking for feed back on our MOCK-UP of our new advisory format. Let us know what you think! http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/newadvisory
Thanks for calling.