New Year New Me - 2024 Edition

(sure wish it was the old me, looking at you 2022 forecast: 2022 into 2023 fx)

TL;DR:  Calm valley, clear-ish skies, maybe wednesday?  

Nowcast:

Current surface conditions (via https://aviationweather-cprk.ncep.noaa.gov/gfa) with satellite overlay and legend showing how to read this stuff. 

Surface observations (temp and winds) from https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/ Airport: top left. Canyons: black circle, bottom. 

Clear skies over Salt Lake with urban temperatures around mid-20 at 4am local / 11 UTC. 

Interesting temperature gradient up BCC.. Torpedo Hill is 'cooking' at 34F while the S Turn reports 29F. Cardiff must be sitting in a cold pool at 12F so cold boots if you're dawn patrolling today. 

https://www.alta.com/weather Alta brings space-station quality nighttime images showing those same clear skies identified at KSLC airport. 

This is more like it. The ol' grainy night time scope, plus it has a time stamp so I find it easier to believe. Looks like a couple stars. 

Looks like the haze continues in the city with relatively calm/stagnant winds and the lack of a major system flushing through the valley: 

Thanks for the image https://www.alta.com/weather

Short term: 

Cool conditions likely to continue 'as is' with light winds from the south increasing this afternoon. No precipitation expected (sad day). 

On the bright side, it'll technically be the 'best ski day' of the year (so far). 

BACK IN TIME (5 days) at MTMET via MTMET - Mesowest

FUTURE TIME (18 hours) in LCC via www.spotwx.com

Multi-day model output for LCC has a promising setup for Wednesday night, maybe a much needed refresh is in the cards: 

3.5 day RDPS Forecast near LCC via www.spotwx.com

Long term:

Stepping away from the models, take a look at NOAA's precipitation outlook: 

We are LEANING ABOVE 'normal' precipitation for the month of January. 
"So you're saying there's a chance?"
yes. 
Via https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

There's a lot of winter remaining so we'll see how things play out.. 

Happy New Year! 

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 here: Utah Avalanche Center