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.

holiday Avalanche advisory

mondAY december 26, 2005

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am wednesday December 28, 2005 or sooner if conditions warrant.

Good morning! This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your holiday avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains. Today is Monday, December 26, 2005 and it’s 7:00 a.m. Avalanche advisories for the western Uintas are available on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and all holidays.

This advisory covers the terrain from Daniels Summit, to Mirror Lake, to the North Slope of the western Uinta Mountains. That’s a lot of turf and I can’t be in all of these places at once. Your snow and avalanche observations are critical to this program and help to save other riders lives by getting accurate information out to the public. I’m interested in what you’re seeing especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Please call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to uac@avalanche.org and fill us in with all the details.

Announcements:

A special thanks to Tri-City Performance, Polaris and The Utah Snowmobile Association for stepping up to the plate and partnering
with this program. 
 
The Moffit Peak weather station is up and running. This site was made possible through generous donations
by BRORA, The Utah Snowmobile Association, and the National Weather Service. You can view data by clicking here.

For avalanche photos click here.

Current Conditions:

Clouds are beginning to move into the area and winds are increasing ahead of a strengthening storm system slated to affect the region late this afternoon through early Tuesday. Current temperatures are still pretty mild, in the mid 20’s at 11,000’ and near freezing at the trailheads. Winds are out of the west and southwest, blowing 15-25 mph, with an occasional gust in the 40’s along the most exposed ridgelines. The combination of no new snow, heavy traffic and lots of wind damage are making for some slim pickins out there this morning, but you can still find patches of soft settled powder on protected, shady, mid elevation slopes.

Avalanche Conditions:

The anticipated storm looks a little better than previously thought and we should wind up with a good shot of moisture by Tuesday morning. I’d expect the avalanche danger to rise accordingly in the next 12-24 hours, so you’ll need to begin tuning in your avalanche radar starting late this afternoon or sooner if the storm arrives earlier than expected. Right now not much is going on with the snowpack at lower and mid elevations, however up high, winds have been blowing since about 2:00 yesterday afternoon, forming wind drifts near the ridges. I don’t think these fresh drifts will be too deep this morning, but as always, assess the slope and try to get as much information about the snowpack before committing to a big line. As the new snow starts to pile up later in the day, you’ll need to reassess your terrain choices and avoid steep wind drifted slopes. There’s plenty of weak snow and slick bed surfaces for avalanches to run on and if this storm pans out as forecast, I’d expect things could get rather interesting by morning.

Bottom Line:

The avalanche danger is generally LOW on most slopes this morning and human triggered avalanches are unlikely.

Above tree-line there are pockets of MODERATE avalanche danger this morning, on slopes facing northwest through east, steeper than about 35 degrees and human triggered avalanches are possible.

As the snow starts to stack up, especially this afternoon, be aware of changing weather conditions and an increasing avalanche danger at all elevations.

Mountain Weather:

A moist Pacific storm will begin to move into the area this afternoon and heavy snow is expected to start sometime this evening. This morning, look for mostly cloudy skies and increasing winds with falling temperatures and snow developing late in the day. High temperatures will occur this morning and should be dropping into the mid 20’s by afternoon. Overnight lows will dip into the low 20’s. Winds will be strong and southerly for most of the day, in the 15-25 mph range, with gusts in the 40’s and 50’s at the most exposed locations. By early evening, winds veer northwesterly and this should usher in colder air and increase precipitation rates. It looks like close to a foot of new snow is a good bet by mid day Tuesday. We should see a break in the action Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday, with another cold front expected late Wednesday into Thursday. Long range forecasts bring yet another shot of snow into the region for the New Year!

General Information:

If you haven’t taken one of our free snowmobile specific avalanche awareness classes, schedule one now before things get too crazy. Give me a call at 801-231-2170 and I’d be happy to tailor a talk for your group.

Also, once there’s enough snow, I’ll have the “Beacon Basin” training site up and running again this year at the Nobletts trailhead.

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.

This advisory expires 24 hours from the date and time posted, but will be updated by 7:30 am on Wednesday December 28, 2005 or sooner if conditions warrant.

Thanks for calling!