The Calm After The Storm

Storm Totals:

Alta: 32”

Snowbird: 32”

Brighton: 31”

Solitude: 23”

Park City: 32”

Deer Valley: 28”

Snowbasin: 20”

Powder Mountain: 20”

TL;DR:

 Following an excellent storm event, things will calm down until next week. Temperatures will remain cold and the skies clear. We may see an event at the beginning of next week, moisture-dependent.

Nowcast:

As the storm settles and the clouds scuttle out of town we are left with cold temperatures in both the valley and the mountains, in the cottonwoods, the temperatures are hardly touching the teens and is even as low as 0 at the peak of Mt. Baldy. Temperatures will remain cold throughout the day with some scattered clouds. Some trace snow could be seen in areas today but nothing significant. With that said we are moving into a dryer period and clear skies are on the way.

Alta Ski Resort

Short term:

Looking to the next couple of days there might not be another storm on the way but there will be stunning clear weather to welcome the opening of some resorts this weekend. Solitude and Brighton will see cold clear days as their lifts start spinning. While there is a shortwave trough passing the area the dry conditions aloft will prevent any sort of precipitation.

The University of Utah Dept. Atmospheric Science

In the maps above the two shortwave troughs that will move over Utah are displayed as well as the patch of dry air that will reside over Utah in the near future. In the image on the bottom right, it can be seen that as a result of the first shortwave trough digging far enough south the injection of moisture misses us far to the east.

Long term:

As seen in the graphic above there is another shortwave trough that is on the way and could arrive around Tuesday. While models show potential for a little bit of precipitation this will be highly dependent on how far south this trough moves. The further north this trough remains the more potential for moisture to be brought to the area and create more favorable storm conditions.

Here the trough for Tuesday is depicted on top of the integrated vapor transport. As the models show at the moment this trough will be far enough south that it will bring the moisture inland south of Utah. The University of Utah Dept. Atmospheric Science

If you will be traveling in the backcountry have the proper equipment and know before you go. With the addition of so much new snow to the snowpack there are many avalanche problems to be aware of, check in with our friends over at the UAC for the full avalanche report and all other things avalanche.