Light snow continued for much of the day yesterday as moisture lingered over the area. Snowfall amounts, however, were minimal with most resorts in Northern Utah reporting 1-3" in the past 24 hours. Snow was a bit heavier in Southern Utah with both Eagle Point and Brian Head reporting 7" of new snow. That light snow will increase in intensity by later this afternoon as a splitting trough dives to our southwest, but drags moisture over the state as it does so. The Wasatch should see snowfall tonight with modest amounts, generally in the 4-8" range for the mountains by Thursday morning. 

Then, after a break early Thursday, a stronger and more consolidated trough will drop into Utah from the northwest Thursday afternoon, into Thursday evening and overnight. We are looking and heavy snowfall with amounts of 8-15" possible in the mountains by Friday morning. Snow will generally clear during the day on Friday, but a persistent northwest flow could keep snow going in places like Little Cottonwood Canyon. There may even be some lake enhancement SE of the GSL. 

If we look at the 12km NAM graph from the U of U, we can see that > 1.4" of SWE (snow water equivalent) for the Upper Cottonwoods by Friday: 

This model tends to underdo amounts by a bit in an orographic setup, so while this shows precip ending by Friday morning, I would not be surprised to see it continue through the day on Friday with higher amounts possible in LCC. Even without additional orographics, 1.4" of SWE should support up to 2 feet of fluff in total by Friday in the Upper Cottonwoods. The GEFS plumes show good agreement and even more QPF than the NAM with almost 2":

You can see the GEFS also pick up on a third, orographic wave later on Friday that we don't see in the NAM. Here is the WPC blended precip for the entire state of Utah through Saturday morning: 

The other area of note, aside from the Wasatch, is southern parts of Utah where Brian Head and Eagle Point should do better with the initial splitting system, then could do quite well Thursday night into Friday in the NW flow as well. Significant totals of up to 2 feet are possible down there as well. 

We clear out by Saturday to start the New Year and we should have an above-average snowpack. 

Clear and warming this weekend into early next week as high pressure takes control for a bit. We are continuing to see models show a return to more active weather middle of next week. While it's too early for any details, this looks to occur on Wednesday and/or Thursday of next week (January 5-6). We will keep an eye on this as we get closer. 

Evan | OpenSnow

I will be doing Weather Wednesday today at Snowbird. Talking about the upcoming storm and weekend, as well as chatting about our snowpack heading into the heart of winter. You can follow along this afternoon by checking out @VisitUtah on Instagram and viewing their stories.