Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

Avalanche ADVISORY

Good morning. This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Wednesday, February 25, 2004 and it’s 7:30 a.m.

Current conditions:

Under clearing skies, temperatures have been cooling for the past couple of hours and currently it’s in the upper teens at most mountaintop locations. Winds are light, generally out of the south, at speeds of 5-15 mph along the ridges. The moist, southerly flow that’s been influencing our weather for the past few days has delivered close to a foot of new snow at the upper elevations throughout the range since Sunday. Riding and turning conditions vary with aspect and elevation. Down low, where only a few inches of snow has fallen you can still feel teeth-chattering old, frozen tracks underneath your skis and machine. And on south facing slopes we haven’t received enough new snow to cushion the breakable crusts. However, on protected shady slopes at both mid and upper elevations, soft creamy powder conditions can still be found and the sliding and riding is quite good.

Avalanche Conditions:

There’s a strong weather system headed our way and a lot to think about in terms of snow stability over the next couple of days. First off, the new snow we received out of the Sunday/Monday storm was ushered in with moderate southeasterly winds, which formed sensitive soft slabs of varying depths on the leeward side of upper elevation ridgelines. Yesterday I was still finding these wind drifts to be reactive to my additional weight and was able to trigger small, soft slab avalanches up to 18” in depth on steep, upper elevation, north facing slopes. While these might not be quite as sensitive today, if your travels take you into this type of terrain be on the lookout for these wind deposits. Also the winds have helped to develop sensitive cornices and these have the possibility of breaking back a little further than you might expect.

Secondly, the sun is getting high in the sky these days and with warm temperatures on tap for today, I’d expect we’ll see some wet sluff activity on steep sunny slopes at both low and mid elevations. So, as the day heats up and you start to see roller balls careening down the hill, you’ll want to get off of and out from under steep sun exposed slopes.

Finally, the weak facets formed during the January dry spell are gaining a little bit of strength, though snow stability tests indicate they’re not going away anytime soon. As a matter of fact, the weakest facets I’ve seen can be found on sheltered, mid elevation, north facing slopes. As I’ve mentioned before I think they’ll be a player when a big storm impacts the region. The incoming system could be the storm that adds enough weight to make this instability rear its ugly head. Should this storm develop as forecast, the avalanche danger could rise rapidly in the next 24-48 hours.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is MODERATE today, at and above timberline, on all slopes steeper than about 35 degrees, with recent deposits of wind-drifted snow. Human triggered avalanches are possible.

At low and mid elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning and may rise to MODERATE on all steep slopes with daytime heating.

On slopes less steep than 35 degrees at all elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW.

Mountain Weather:

Today we can expect partly cloudy skies, balmy temperatures, and increasing southwest winds by afternoon. All of these factors are a precursor to a strong weather system slated to move into the region on Thursday. High temperatures today at 10,000’ will be in the mid to upper 20’s and at 8,000’ in the low 40’s. Overnight lows will dip into the mid 20’s. Winds will be out of the south this morning blowing at speeds of 10-20 mph along the ridges and will be switching to the southwest by late in the afternoon and increase into the 25 mph range. Late this evening winds should get cranking, with gusts into the 40’s at the more exposed ridgeline locations. Snow will begin after midnight and it looks like we’ll pickup 2”-4” by morning. On Thursday the winds should relax a bit and temperatures will cool as the first part of the storm arrives. Snow totals look to be in the 6”-10” range from this first wave, then round two moves in late Thursday night for another good shot of snow through Friday. Unsettled weather will continue through Sunday.

General Information:

We can always use snow and avalanche information and your snowpack and avalanche observations could help to save someone’s life. If you see or trigger an avalanche give us a call at 801-231-2170 or 1-800-662-4140.

Also, if you’d like to schedule a free avalanche awareness talk and/or field day give us a call at 801-524-5304.

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.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb.28, 2004.

Thanks for calling.