Powder to Kick of 25'

TL;DR: 

    Wind today and cooling temps as a cold front approaches. Snow through the weekend with the brunt on Saturday. Totals of 8-15" expected. Flurries to start the new week. 

Nowcast:

    This morning in the mountains, warm prefrontal winds exist out of the WSW, keeping temps relatively warm in the mid-thirties around mountain bases and dipping below freezing at mountain tops. Mountain top winds out of the WSW are in the mid 20's mph with gusts reaching up to the mid 40's. Broken clouds will persist.  

Alta Ski Area showing off this morning

Short term:

     Through the day today temperatures will drop from this morning as the impending cold front approaches. Off the Western U.S. coast a trough is building, as it moves inland winds will increase through the day today and veer (shift clockwise) as the front approaches.

Courtesy of UofU Atmospheric Sciences

    

    The impending cold front will arrive early Saturday morning around 4:00 (denoted by the green highlight above). With it, temperatures will drop significantly into the low teens. The brunt of the storm will come early on with precipitation rates peaking around 2.5"/hr-3.5"/hr in the upper Cottonwoods. With significant temperature drop as the storm progresses SLR will drop along with it bringing some fine right side up Utah Champaign pow to welcome the new year. The Northern Wasatch will be favored by this storm yet snow is to be expected for the more Southerly resorts as well. 

Snow Totals for the upper Cottonwoods are expected to be in the 9-15" range.  

Long term:

                As we look ahead to the coming week the sporadic flurries that will close the weekend may stick around for the start of the week.  With the passage of this weekend's trough, another shortwave will develop behind it, yet may dig too deep down the west coast to bring significant snow totals. That said, cool temperatures and broken clouds on Monday and Tuesday should keep the skiing good with little flurries to compliment.

Avalanche Comments:

                Following a difficult few days for the backcountry community here in Utah we can’t stress enough the importance of being properly equipped with the knowledge, equipment, and experience to travel and ski in the backcountry. Know before you go and have the right equipment. For all things avalanche check in with our friends over at the Utah Avalanche Center.

For reports from the recent avalanche fatalities see the observations page.