The Weather Notebook: Avalanche-1

Avalanche-1
Listen in RealAudio
Email your weather question

Avalanches are one of the weather's deadliest phenomena. Every year, more than two dozen people are killed by them in the United States, mostly in backcountry locations. Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook . Reporter, Jeff Rice joined an avalanche expert in Utah to find out more. He files this report. We find ourselves hiking up towards Power Line Pass in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. Bruce Tremper, head of the Utah Avalanche Forecasting Center is my guide. BT: I just fell in love with avalanches. Once you see your first avalanche it's amazing, the incredible power. Each day he gets up at dawn and hikes up the side of a mountain to measure snow conditions. Things like snow pack, dryness, air temperature, and humidity. Thousands of skiers, snowboarders, and skimobilers rely on his reports to help them gauge the safety of the mountain. BT: Let's head up this way. I've already decided that I don't want to where it's real steep. That's where those other folks have gone and I don't think I want to follow them. Typically, Tremper says, backcountry skiers face what are known as slab avalanches. Heavy snowfall, combined with variations in temperature, can create snow layers that can become unstable and slide. Given a steep enough slope, gravity takes over. A slab of snow breaks off like a giant dinner plate and carries you down with it. Should this happen we're equipped with avalanche beacons which are small radio transmitters which are designed to locate us should we be buried. We also have shovels. And on Trempers advice I've brought along an extra pair of mittens. An avalanche will rip them off, he says, and it will be hard to dig should I be so lucky. More from Jeff Rice in tomorrow's report. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mt. Washington observatory and is supported by Subaru of America. Thanks today to assistant producer Doug Sanborn.