No today, Snow Tomorrow

TL;DR:

Not much during the day 12/20, chase for light flurries in higher elevations. System moving in late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning has the potential to bring several inches to ski areas. Plumes predict 10 inches - 15 inches in the mountains and 0.5 inches - 1.5 inches in the valley.

SLC, U of U Atmospheric Science

Alta, U of U Atmospheric Science

Nowcast:

Current conditions are in the upper 20’s and light winds from WSW increase speed as you go up to the peaks. It’s a beautiful day today. The calm before the storm!

Short Term:

Models remain predicting a trough moving into Northern Utah late tonight bringing potentially 10 inches throughout the day. This system looks like it moves in quickly (tonight) and moves out (Thursday morning) just as fast. Unfortunately it looks like the center of the trough just misses us here in Utah. I’m not seeing great vertical motion in the models so I’m not confident that the plumes are accurate at 10 inches - 15 inches, maybe closer to 5 inches - 10 inches. There is however a slight chance of some lake effect snow for the valley moving into Thursday if the system moves in a little slower than models show.

Long Term:

We are however receiving very highly anomalous levels of precipitable moisture moving into Wednesday throughout the weekend. If favorable lifting conditions move in towards the weekend there is slight potential for some snow Christmas weekend. Temps should warm up as we move towards the weekend which might make the roads icy over nights. Remember to check back towards the end of the week for your Christmas forecasts to keep your holiday travels safe.

❄Happy Holidays!❄