textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES

- Lingering light snow showers will diminish by this evening as a storm system continues to exit the area.

- High pressure will bring dry and increasingly mild conditions for the weekend and into early next week.

- There is a high chance that increasing moisture and a grazing storm system will curb the warming trend and bringing accumulating valley rain and mountain snow by the middle of the upcoming week.

DISCUSSION

The storm system that brought significant snow to southern Utah earlier has tracked eastward into Colorado and New Mexico this afternoon. Lingering moisture and instability are keeping a few showers going, including some lake enhanced showers primarily SSE of the lake. These valley showers appear to be falling as rain or a mix of rain and snow, with light accumulations. Any afternoon showers are expected to dissipate during the early evening hours.

High pressure has made its way into the Great Basin and will continue to build across the forecast area over the weekend. This will keep conditions dry with a steady warming trend into early next week. Tonight, the cold airmass in the wake of the trough and the rapid clearing will result in apparent temperatures as low as 10F across the Wasatch Front, which could bring health issues for pets, unsheltered populations, and other sensitive groups. By Saturday afternoon, high temperatures are forecast to return to near seasonal normals, with a high chance of temperatures averaging 10F above climo by Monday afternoon.

By Monday, clouds are expected to start increasing as the ridge begins to flatten and the flow aloft becomes more zonal. Well over half of guidance is indicating deeper atmospheric river moisture in weak warm advection moving into northern portions of the area as early as Tuesday, bringing the potential return of valley rain and mountain snow, similar to the warm and moist pattern that has been common this winter season. Confidence is increasing that a grazing storm system will bring lowering snow levels by Wednesday, but there remains significant spread with regard to the amount of potential cooling and the amount of available moisture at that time.

Long range guidance brings high confidence that drier and more mild conditions will return for next weekend.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING

Occasional snow showers remain possible across KLGU, KOGD, KSVR, and KHCR over the next 1- 2hrs. Following this, cloud cover will gradually reduce across all sites making way for VFR conditions through the remainder of the TAF period as high pressure builds in.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

UT...None. WY...None.