Where did the front land?

TL;DR:

Snow showers today thanks to a front; fairly chilly and likely dry until next weekend.

Nowcast:

This weekend's snowfall is being determined by a cold front stalling over Utah; where it parked itself would determine who got the best snowfall. Well, as of 6:30am, the front is stalled here:

Current radar, courtesy of OpenSnow

It's sort of falling apart on radar and the best part of what remains isn't targeting any ski areas, but the front was more robust earlier this morning and delivered some snow; from checking snow stakes and webcams, I'm seeing the following totals as of 6:30am:

- Park City/Deer Valley: 1-2"

- Solitude/Brighton: ~2"

- Snowbird/Alta: 2-3"

- Sundance: 1"

- Snowbasin/PowMow: 0-1"

The front is projected to remain in a similar location for at least a couple more hours, so we could add a couple of inches onto these totals.

Short-term:

High temperatures should start the week in the high 20s °F and gradually warm from there. It'll be a very dry week (again) but read on, because that may change...

Long-term:

Model guidance is suggesting our next storm for next weekend, continuing the trend of Saturday/Sunday snow days. Early indications look promising, though - check out the Utah snow ensemble plumes for Alta:

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

You can see that towards the end of this period (beginning of February) the lines go up - indicating snowfall - but they also spread out a lot, indicating considerable uncertainty. This isn't surprising of course since we're about a week out - we'll keep an eye on it...

If you'll 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, go to utahavalanchecenter.org.