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Parks and Recreation, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, Utah Department
of Emergency Services and Homeland Security and
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AVALANCHE ADVISORY
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Friday,
December 01, 2006 7:30 am
Good morning, this is Brett Kobernik with
the
Current Conditions:
Winds continued to
blow from the west northwest overnight with gusts into the 50s at the most
exposed locations. It also appears that
the gusty conditions are getting into the mid elevations as well with gusts in
the 20s & 30s along the 8000 & 9000 foot ridges. Temperatures are in the upper teens to low
20s at most locations. A trace to a
couple of inches of snow fell overnight throughout the range.
Snowpack and Avalanche Conditions:
Pesky winds are today’s focus. It seems that the winds over the last few
days blew snow around, formed some drifts and some small cornices that broke
off under their own weight. No one
reported significant activity out of this event but everyone is alert. (Snow
Diagram)
For today the main concern is wind deposited
snow. While weakness within the newest
snow doesn’t seem present, any fresh drifts should not be trusted. Also, as winds help to stiffen the new snow, this
may create a slab where the weight of a person may initiate a collapse of the
snowpack into deeper weak snow. You may
find fresh drifts at many elevations and mainly on northeast through south
facing slopes. Areas where winds may
overload deeper weakness are located in upper elevation northerly facing slopes. Continue to stomp on any “pillowy” looking
snow formations that are in safe low angle terrain to see if they crack. Slope cuts should be performed where
appropriate. If you experience any “whoomping” or collapsing while traveling, this indicates
weakness exists deeper in the snowpack.
Bottom Line:
The avalanche danger
is MODERATE on upper elevation slopes steeper
than about 35 degrees with recent deposits of wind drifted snow. Moderate means human triggered avalanches are
possible. Any avalanching today will
most likely be the result of recent winds.
Most areas out of wind affected terrain have a LOW danger.
Mountain Weather:
A cool northwest flow
looks like it will continue through Saturday.
This will bring colder temperatures, clouds and the chance for light
snow as well as continued northwest winds.
For today, ridgetop temperatures will not warm much and will continue to
drop into the single digits by Saturday.
Ridgetop northwest winds will continue to blow in the 10 to 15 mph range
with gusts into the 20s & 30s. Stronger
gusts will continue at the more exposed locations. Only a few inches of snow is
expected.
Chances for snow next
week don’t look good with weather models depicting a ridge of high pressure as
the dominant feature.
Announcements:
Our
partners, the FUAC, will hold their next fundraiser
at Brewvies on Dec 7th. There will be two showings of TGR’s new
film, “The Anomaly”, at 7pm and 9pm.
Advance tickets are available.
We appreciate any
snowpack and avalanche observations you have, so please let us know by calling
(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.
Evelyn Lees will
update this advisory by 7:30 on Friday morning and thanks for calling.