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 ADVISORY
Friday,
December 30, 2005 7:30am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Check out our new graphical advisory format. You can update your bookmarks to this link:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/newadvisory/advisory.php
Current Conditions:
3 to 6 inches of snow fell early Thursday morning throughout the Wasatch,
a lot of this contained graupel. Most
people in the backcountry were not finding sensitive wind slabs and were riding
steep terrain with quite a bit of confidence.
The new snow was somewhat prone to sluffing on the surface with just a
few small slabs under cliff bands where the graupel had rolled downhill and
pooled. Current ridgetop temperatures
are in the upper teens and ridgetop wind speeds are around 10 mph from the west.
Avalanche Conditions:
For today I would still watch for a few wind slabs along the upper
elevation ridgelines. It appears that
these won’t be much of a problem but don’t let them surprise you if you are in
steeper, exposed terrain.
The main thing to keep in mind for today and more importantly through
the weekend is that the avalanche danger is going to be on the rise with a
moist and windy storm predicted. The new
snow probably won’t add up enough during the day today to change conditions a
whole lot but by Saturday morning we could see up to a foot of new snow which
will be accompanied by fairly strong ridgetop winds that could form sensitive fresh
wind slabs.
Bottom Line:
Today there is a mostly LOW avalanche danger in
the
Mountain Weather:
Ridgetop winds will be from a westerly direction in the 15 mph range
increasing through out the day. This
morning’s cooler ridgetop temperatures will be on the rise through the day and
will be into the mid to upper 20s this afternoon. A warm front will bring snow which will start
this afternoon and should really get underway late this afternoon and
evening. Snow levels will rise to around
8000’ by Saturday morning. Confidence is
good that we may see up to a foot of snow overnight but warm fronts are tricky
in my book.
Warm air advection continues through Saturday bringing more snow
accompanied by strong southwest winds.
The flow shifts to the northwest for a short period early Sunday morning
with snow tapering off by noon. Weather
models show up to 2 inches of water with this snow which could translate into
upwards of 20 inches total snowfall by Sunday.
Stay tuned.
Regional
Snow Profile (this profile can also be
found daily off our home page under avalanche products)
Click here for Seasonal Weather History Charts.
Yesterday,
Wasatch Powderbird Guides did not fly and if they can fly today, they’ll be in
Please
report any backcountry snow and avalanche conditions you observe. Call (801) 524-5304 or 1-800-662-4140, email uac@avalanche.org or fax 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.
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.)
UDOT also has a highway avalanche control work
hotline for Little Cottonwood road, which is updated as needed. 801-975-4838.
I will update
this advisory by 7:30 Saturday morning. Thanks for calling.