We’ve had a big storm make its way through the area this week that has kind of stalled over us and has brought in some snow in the higher elevations. Castle Country Radio was able to speak over the telephone with the Utah Avalanche Center’s Brett Kobernik about the latest conditions taking place out in the backcountry.
“This storm started moving through, actually started moving through yesterday, late Tuesday night actually into Wednesday. It’s already produced about 10 inches up on the Manti LaSal Skyline, that happened on Wednesday. This thing is going to drift south and it’s going to park itself over Arizona, and the rotation is going to produce a flow with wind from the east and southeast,” said Kobernik. The direction of this storm is unusual for us and could produce some snow in the valleys. The forecast is predicting 1 to 2 inches of moisture for the Skyline, which translates to 10 to 20 inches of snow.
As for the avalanche conditions along the Skyline the danger will increase as the storm moves through the area. “It’s this Spring type conditions where we see avalanche dangers spike during the storms, and it tapers back off and it becomes pretty benign afterwards. That’s what we are going to be looking at here but what is going to be different about this storm is it flows from the east and we’re going to see some really strong winds,” stated Kobernik. So this could bring in snow drifts and wind slabs that could form in unusual places making the avalanche rating considerable during the storm.
As with every interview with Kobernik he again reminds folks to check the avalanche ratings by visiting the Utah Avalanche Center website. “It’s https://utahavalanchecenter.org/ is where you can get the Daily Avalanche Forecast that’s updated by about 7:00 am each morning. It’s your best resource for getting information so that you know what the conditions are prior to getting up on to the mountain,” said Kobernik. This information is very important as it helps individuals make plans to go recreate in the outdoors safely.