Utah Daily Snow

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By Evan Thayer, Forecaster Posted 1 year ago January 18, 2023

Weak Slider

Summary

We have a break today (Wednesday) to finally dig out. A weak system will slide down to our west and cross southern Utah late Thursday into Thursday night. Additional weak systems possible late weekend and next week as we remain generally cool.

Short Term Forecast

Snow showers continued, as expected yesterday. Most areas were in the 2-6" range for new snow over the past 24 hours, but a few like Brian Head and Snowbird are reporting 10" of fluff. 

We are going to clear out today but remain cold. Another storm is dropping south into California and crossing the southern Great Basin on Thursday. This is going to take weak energy into southern Utah. Enough energy may cross the Wasatch of northern Utah to bring some snow showers and light accumulation, but the best accumulations of 3-6" will be in the southern mountains. You can see that precip, in general, is meager with this storm. 

Still, could be a nice refresh for Friday morning in southern/central Utah mountains. 

We have another break Friday and Saturday but again remain cool. Another system will be possible for Sunday. This is again a weak inside-slider type storm that has very little moisture to work with. Northern Utah mountains could once again see some light amounts but that's about it. Overall, we will be in a pattern of ridging along the west coast with a trough to our east on the other side of the continental divide. You can see this clearly in the CPC 6-10 day precip forecast:

We saw this pattern earlier in the season in early December. As you can see we are in the middle with cool temperatures and chances for mostly light snow. 

Extended Forecast

We will stay in this pattern into next week with additional weak storms possible around January 25-26 and perhaps again around Jan 28. Then, the ridge will move west and by the end of the month it should open the storm door. It may take a bit for an actual storm to move in, but current guidance is suggesting that maybe January 31-Feb 2 we will see our first storm of significance. We will keep an eye on this. 

Evan | OpenSnow

P.S. Fun side note, I noticed last night that Snowbird snotel is now essentially even with last year's peak snowpack which we achieve in late April!

We are also to almost 80% of the median peak, which means we are less than halfway through the season, but only need 20% of our seasonal total to guarantee an above normal snowpack this year. A lot of other locations have already surpassed the median peak. Statewide, I think we are >90% there which means just another good storm or two will guarantee a better-than-average year.

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Evan Thayer

Forecaster

To Evan, 'The Greatest Snow on Earth' is more than just a motto - it’s a way of life. In 2010, he started Wasatch Snow Forecast as a way to share the best powder days with his fellow snow-lovers. Evan brings the same quality forecasts and weather discussions to OpenSnow and hopes you enjoy skiing/riding Utah as much as he does.

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