avalanche

Several storms have passed through this week and it has changed the conditions up in the higher elevations. Castle Country Radio took time to speak over the telephone with Utah Avalanche Center’s Brett Kobernik to get all the details as of March 23.

“We’ve had well over two feet of snow in the high country since Sunday and a series of storms, and it’s been windy. So the avalanche danger has been elevated and still in a very, very, winter-like pattern right now,” said Kobernik. The amount of snow our area has received recently makes for the possibility of large avalanches, plus with the windy conditions, it also adds concern.

As for conditions this weekend, its looks as though avalanche conditions can change. “Things do change rapidly in the Spring time, we don’t have, what we call a persistent weak layer within the snowpack. That’s these sugary layers we talk about sometimes and those aren’t present in the snowpack right now. It’s mainly just new storm snow issues, and like I said, we had a couple of storms back to back, that piled up snow very rapidly and quite a bit of wind. But this stuff will settle very rapidly as well,” said Kobernik. The newer storms help put weight on the underlying layers of snow making it more compact and stable.

The snow in the high country is proving to help with drought-like conditions that we have been facing the last few years. “You know we have depth of an even 12 feet of settled snow at Fairview Lake, that’s between Huntington Canyon and Fairview Canyon – so an amazing amount of snow there. A lot of areas averaging 9 feet of snow throughout the Skyline, water totals in that snow are something of upwards of 30 and 35 inches of water contained in that snowpack up there,” explained Kobernik. This is good news all the way around, as a deep snowpack will be able to help with the drought-like conditions this Spring.

If you have plans to recreate this weekend in the higher elevations you want to be sure to be careful in certain areas. “The danger will be tapering off slowly, concerned still on Saturday about high elevations, steep slopes, where the wind has been drifting snow, that’s the main concern. That snowpack will start to stabilize slowly over the next few days. Probably the most important thing for folks that are interested in getting out this weekend, check that daily avalanche forecast at https://utahavalanchecenter.org/ that will give you the most recent information,” said Kobernik. On the website you will be able to see the danger rating of avalanches, the amount of snow that has been received and can expect, the current and estimated temperatures in the backcountry.

 

 

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