Dust on Friday; Then High Pressure

TL:DR: Central Wasatch resorts are reporting anywhere from 1-4" this morning. We'll see a clearing and drying trend in the medium-range, with the next chances for snow in early February.

Nowcast: Yesterday's storm took a more southerly track, leaving many models to over-forecast snow in the central Wasatch. Central Wasatch reports saw between 1 and 4 inches of snow, but Eagle Point and Brian Head in Southern Utah are reporting 7 and 16 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, respectively. Mountain temperatures this morning are in the upper teens and twenties, under mostly cloudy skies.

Source: Park City Mountain Resort

Short-term Forecast: A ridge of high pressure will dominate over the western U.S. over the short term, preventing any storms from reaching our region and creating sunny skies and warm temperatures in the mountains of Northern Utah. This can clearly be seen in the 6 UTC GFS valid for late Monday evening. The upside-down U oriented black contours in the upper left plot over the intermountain west indicate ridging. 

Source: University of Utah Department of Atmospheric Science

This will cause warm temperatures above freezing at mountain crest level (red contours in bottom left plot), and force atmospheric river storms from the Pacific Ocean to produce precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and Canada (right two plots). As for Utah, we'll remain dry and warm until next Friday at the earliest.

Backcountry Comments: 

If you will be traveling in the backcountry make sure you have the proper equipment and know before you go. For the whole avalanche forecast and all things avalanche head over to our friends at the Utah Avalanche Center.