Refills on the way

TL;DR: A shortwave trough will affect Northern Utah tonight into tomorrow morning bringing moderate snowfall to upper elevations and rain to the valley. The main trough axis will pass tomorrow night, favoring southern Utah mountains.

Nowcast: It is currently 36 F at the base of Alta with moderate wind from the SSW and partly cloudy skies. Expect the temperature to decrease throughout the day as a shortwave trough approaches the region, bringing overnight snowfall. 

(Alta: https://www.alta.com/weather)

Short-Term: A trough currently sits along the coast of Northern California driving SW flow into Northern Utah. A shortwave will be ejected from the main trough axis and affect Northern Utah tonight around 5 pm. This should be a mild storm bringing 6-12” to Alta through Sunday midday.

(University of Utah: https://weather.utah.edu/. The main take away today is the warm moist air being advected into the region shown by green in the plot above. Notice the Blue 0 C line extend all the way above 750mb, which loosely represents the snow level.)

Long-Term: Sunday night the main trough axis will become more unorganized as it propagates eastward. The best dynamics will be to our south affecting Southern Utah and Arizona. The Northern Utah mountains may see chances of snow at times but no large accumulations are expected. After Sunday mild ridging will occur until Tuesday/Wednesday, when we see another chance for snowfall.

Backcountry Comments: If you are headed into the backcountry, visit UAC for the latest information.