It's been an interesting week.  As expected, a cold, winter-like trough moved over the western US and dropped temperatures dramatically.  Snow was seen in most Utah mountains from central Utah northward.  The first snowfall was Thursday night associated with the initial cold front.  We then had a cold core wrap around start Saturday night into Sunday.  Got a bit of favorable upslope on the Wasatch back which switched to northwest flow as the system departed to our east.  

It's really hard to know how much snow fell without ski resorts reporting.  Based on reports I've gotten, webcams, and automated sensors -- I would guess that most areas saw 6+" above 8000 feet.  Some areas look to have seen up to a foot or more.  Not bad for the third week of September...  One thing is for sure, the webcam images this morning were sensational. 

First, let's look at the Summit of Solitude: 

Looks deep! Wonder if they're about to drop the Honeycomb gates...

How about Hidden Peak from the top of Snowbird: 

Gorgeous view down to the valley! Now, let's look at Deer Valley...

A beautiful sunrise coming up on the Wasatch Back!  I really enjoyed going thru the webcams this morning.  (Reminder: You can set up your OpenSnow dashboard to see all the webcams in your area all on one page.)  

As for the forecast, we are cold today but will slowly start to warm up thru the week.  By the weekend, we should see 70s in the valleys and 50s in the high mountains.  I'd expect most of this snow to melt over the next week.  High pressure will remain in control for the time being.  A monsoonal-like moisture surge will move up from the south but most moisture should stay to our east in Colorado.  

Eventually, we could see troughs starting to push back into the PNW, but that looks to hold off until well into October and will likely stay north of us initially.  Looking at the ECMWF weeklies, it looks like by the second week of October that troughs will start to affect the region again.  I'm encouraged because the pattern looks quite active through the end of October.  Of course, these types of long-range forecasts are not very accurate.  Right now, we'll have perfect weather for getting out and enjoying the changing colors.  

Evan | OpenSnow