Very repetitive weather for the past 9 days.  Tonight, a weak shortwave system is going to drop down the east side of the ridge into Colorado to our east.  We probably won't see any precip from this, but we should see some clouds and breezes later today into early tomorrow.  Then, another system will drop down the east side of the ridge late Friday night into Saturday morning.  This one will be farther west and a bit stronger and will bring a chance for light snow to at least northern Utah.  Accumulations should be on the light side but it will usher in colder air which is good news for snowmaking crews.  

Big difference between the Euro and the GFS after this weekend.  GFS remains similar to its runs yesterday with another system dropping down into the area around the 21st-23rd -- not a big storm but at least something.  The Euro, on the other hand, has the system staying very weak and well to our north on today's 00z run.  This is a huge difference from the cut-off low it was showing yesterday.  Hopefully the Euro isn't spotting a trend or else we should likely be dry from this weekend thru Christmas if its correct.  Here is the next 10 days per the Euro: 

Paltry amounts from this weekend's weak storm and that's it.  The GFS has the weak storm this weekend, then a slightly stronger storm for Dec 21-23 and looks like this over the next 10 days: 

Obviously, neither solution is ideal as we need big storms to get us back up to near normal snowpack, but if given the choice, I'd certainly rather have the GFS solution verify than the Euro.  We'll continue to watch this over the coming days... 

The pattern is shifting slowly.  Not the full on pattern change we need, but a slow shift is better than nothing.  We've go nowhere to go but up from here.  Looks like the high pressure is slowly retrograding and will amplify up into Alaska.  Generally this is a pattern that delivers weak, overland systems that fall down the the backside of the ridge.  Sure enough, that's what we've got over the next 10 days.  Often, the ridge over-amplifies eventually and is undercut by the southern branch of the jet stream.  We'll see if that occurs.  Models still showing nothing concrete for major pattern change. The uber-long range tools we use continue to show change occurring right around New Year's Day.  I'm keeping my eye on that time frame.  

As for the holidays, we've got plenty of terrain open in Utah right now, despite our slow start.  However, off-piste skiing is generally still a no go unless you're willing to risk life and limb.  I wouldn't do it.  Mountain operations crews are doing a fantastic job getting as many runs open as possible for the holidays.  Hats off to them for their efforts! 

Evan | OpenSnow

I will be doing a live Instagram snow report today.  To view it, just follow @VisitUtah on Instagram and keep an eye on your stories.  If you don't have Instagram, video will be posted later today on Facebook on the "Visit Utah" facebook page.