textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES

- Scattered showers will continue over northern Utah and southwest Wyoming through Sunday, with valley rain and mountain snow becoming more widespread during the day Monday as an upper low crosses the area through Tuesday morning.

- After a break in the action late Tuesday into early Wednesday, a colder system will impact the area late Wednesday into Thursday, bringing some additional mountain snow accumulations as well as the potential for light valley snow.

DISCUSSION

High pressure is centered off the coast of northern Mexico this evening, putting Utah and southwest Wyoming under a roughly zonal flow aloft. This is allowing moisture and weak instability to advect into northern portions of the area from a low pressure system approaching the Pacific coast. This has allowed for the development of scattered showers across the northern half of the area, with snow levels primarily in the 8,000 foot to 9,000 foot range owing to the mild airmass in place. Periods of showers will continue through Sunday as the Pacific system continues east and the moisture and instability continue to move in.

Guidance is in good agreement that the Pacific low will open up and make its way across Utah and southwest Wyoming during the day Monday into Tuesday morning. With the passage of the system's cold front, valley rain and mountain snow will become widespread over northern portions of the area with a small drop in snow levels. Snow will still be confined to the mountains, limiting associated travel impacts to those areas. Behind the front, instability showers will linger through Tuesday morning in northwest flow as the system exits.

High pressure is expected to briefly move back in late Tuesday into Wednesday, but a colder Pacific Northwest storm system is on track to impact the area late Wednesday into Thursday. The temperatures associated with this storm will be more typical for this time of year, and may seem cold given the very mild weather as of late. These temperatures are cold enough to bring a low chance of snow to the valleys of northern Utah, though the chance of accumulating snow still looks to be less than ten percent. Overall, guidance is indicating that this system will be less organized and have noticeably less moisture accompanying it compared to the Monday low, so will need to keep expectations in check.

Behind that low, the majority of guidance shows a relatively active pattern continuing into the upcoming weekend, though with a large amount of disagreement regarding any of the details.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING

Sporadic showers will continue across northern Utah tonight into Sunday morning and again Sunday night, with shower coverage being much more isolated Sunday afternoon. Briefly MVFR conditions will be possible in showers, especially at KHCR and KEVW, otherwise predominantly VFR conditions are expected at most terminals. Winds will generally see typical diurnal trends.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

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