Mostly quiet week ahead

TL;DR:

There's a chance of some very light snow tonight along with the chance of more snow this weekend. Temps gradually warm as the week goes on.

Nowcast:

It's a cold, clear morning in the Wasatch; here's the view from near the top of Park City's Crescent chair:

Courtesy of OpenSnow

Don't let that bright shining sun fool you - the valley is in the mid 20s °F and Snowbird's Hidden Peak is showing 8°F with a cool -12°F windchill (up from -21°F just an hour ago but still cold):

Hidden Peak weather, courtesy of the National Weather Service

Expect more of the same for the rest of the day - temps won't climb much above 20°F around mid-elevations and will struggle to break 10°F up at the highest summits; also, expect increasing cloud cover and wind as the day goes on.

Short-term:

A very weak piece of energy crosses northern Utah tonight; I can't rule out a few snowflakes, but it shouldn't be more than an inch or so at most. You can see the slightest increase in accumulated snow on the snow ensemble plumes for Alta:

Utah snow ensemble plumes for Alta, courtesy of the U's Department of Atmospheric Sciences

You can also see a bigger jump after about Friday morning; there's little model agreement on this snow, but you can be sure that we will be keeping an eye on it here at Utah Ski Weather!

Outside of our limited precip chances this week, we'll see mostly clear skies and gradually warming temps - here's a GIF with forecasted high temperatures through Friday:

Euro model 2m high temperatures, courtesy of Tropical Tidbits

You can see that we climb from 26°F to 41°F from today to Friday - good news for those of us who aren't super stoked on frigid temps...

Long-term:

Utah, along with nearly all of the west coast south of the Canadian border, is expected to be in a drier-than-normal pattern for the next little while. Here's what that looks like in a graphic (green means wetter than normal, yellow means drier than normal):

GEFS accumulated precipitation anomaly, courtesy of Tropical Tidbits

Does this mean we won't get any snow? Not necessarily, but it doesn't favor the stormy pattern we winter enthusiasts love either. We'll just have to keep watching and waiting...

Backcountry comments:

If you will be traveling in the backcountry, make sure you have the proper training and equipment and know before you go. For the avalanche forecast and other avy-related resources, visit utahavalanchecenter.org.