Last night's system moved through and while it was weak as expected, it managed to drop a bit more snow than expected. Forecast was for 1-3" and the Cottonwoods picked up 3-4" of dense, creamy snow. Today should have some soft turns.

We've talked about it for a few days now, but as we get closer, confidence increases. We have a strong late April storm that will push into California tonight and Thursday and reach Utah by Friday morning. Heavy snow continues to look likely Friday into Friday night with showers continuing in cool northwest flow on Saturday. As for totals, all major models agree that this has potential to be significant, especially for this time of year. Here is this morning's EC showing solid amounts over an inch of liquid in the Wasatch:

The EC doesn't do as well with terrain and often shows more conservative amounts than the GFS. You can see that clearly looking at the latest GFS which is noticeably wetter:

Then, we have the Canadian GEM which is notorious for getting overexcited, eh?

The point of showing you three major models is just to reaffirm that a strong storm is likely, and even the most conservative models are showing over an inch of liquid with some models going over 2" for the central Wasatch.

What does this all mean in terms of timing and snowfall? We should see snow pick up Friday morning and be heaviest Friday afternoon and evening. Snow will continue, especially in areas favored in NW flow, on Saturday. I think 1-2 FEET of snow for the Cottonwoods is highly likely and I wouldn't be shocked if we see higher amounts if the wetter solutions verify. As I mentioned yesterday, this is great news for our snowpack because it not only delays the melt-off a bit, but it adds to the existing snowpack and will put us at least a little bit closer to a normal snowpack. 

We should clear out by late Sunday with warming conditions for early next week. I think most of next week will be relatively quiet and warm weather. Models hinting that more active weather could return at the end of April and/or beginning of May. 

Evan | OpenSnow