Last week’s forecast verified.  We saw an absolutely unprecedented cold early season trough.  Temperatures dropped down below freezing for all of Northern Utah with temps in colder valleys in the single digits with even 0F recorded in a couple locations.  I was in Denver for my sister’s wedding where the change was even more extreme.  It was 83F last Wednesday, and by the time I woke up on Thursday morning it was 20F and snowing heavily.  The high temp never got above 25F on Thursday.  It was one of the biggest temp swings in U.S. history.  Luckily, the temperatures rebounded almost as quickly and it was comfortably warm for the outdoor wedding on Saturday. 

Although temps have recovered well in Utah, the damage from last week’s sub-freezing weather is apparent.  Many trees never had a chance to change colors.  They just froze and died.  A lot of depressing brown leaves still adorn the trees on my drive home yesterday. 

Today is a perfect autumn day with an almost full moon setting at the same time the sun is rising, here are a couple webcam images of the moon this morning:

 

 The warm weather will last another couple days before the weather changes again.  A cold front will push in late on Thursday.  This front will cool us down but moisture is limited.  A few showers will be possible, mostly in the mountains of Northern Utah, Thursday night into early Friday. 

A stronger system then pushes in late Saturday into Sunday.  Snow will fall in the mountains of Northern Utah with rain showers in the lower valleys.  Here is a look at total precip expected:

 And when we convert to snowfall:

 Several inches (perhaps up to a foot in places) of snowfall looks likely Saturday night into Sunday.  Sunday will be the coldest day of the next week.  Temps then start to warm a bit next week. 

High pressure generally looks to take control for the second half of October.  If you were hoping for a very early start to the season here in Utah, it looks unlikely.  At this time, I’d expect us to have to wait until November before bigger winter storms start to roll in consistently. 

Evan | OpenSnow