textproduct: Salt Lake City

KEY MESSAGES

- Lingering light snow with minimal accumulations will continue into this afternoon mainly across southern and central Utah. In the wake of this storm, some of the coldest temperatures of the season can be expected Sunday morning.

- Gap winds will develop in favored areas of southwest Utah this afternoon and evening.

DISCUSSION

An upper trough continues to carve south into Utah this morning, pushing the existing cold front into southern utah. Radar imagery shows a few associated showers currently in place across central and southern Utah. These showers are expected to increase a bit for this morning ahead of the trough axis. Minor additional accumulations are expected (generally 2 inches or less in the mountains and 0.5 inches or less in the valleys) before precipitation winds down this afternoon.

Behind the cold front, northerly flow and cold advection will bring gap winds to Washington County. Wind gusts of around 40-50 mph will be possible this afternoon and evening for a few hours. Despite hitting on the low end of advisory criteria, due to localized nature and limited impacts, have opted not to go with any wind highlights at this time.

Temperatures today will run a bit below climatological normal. Northern and most central Utah valleys will fail to reach 40F, while far southern through east-central Utah valleys will trend closer to 45-50F. As the storm system exits the area tonight, clearing skies will lead to cold overnight mins of around 3-8 degrees below normal. With some northerly winds still in place, apparent temperatures (wind chills) will be in the mid teens along the Wasatch Front, and down to single digits in many other valleys.

Utah will remain under a north to northwesterly flow aloft through Tuesday before a shortwave ridge shifts over the area for Wednesday. A series of grazing shortwave disturbances should keep inversions from becoming very strong until the ridge arrives. The first of these shortwave disturbances, arriving on Sunday, could bring some light snow to the Uintas. The second of these, arriving on Tuesday, currently appears to be a bit drier. Once the shortwave ridge arrives on Wednesday, the question becomes how long will it maintain its position over the area. The deterministic GFS has had some recent solutions which would bring a trough into the area on Thursday accompanied by some precipitation. The 00Z deterministic EC has now come on board with a similar idea. Something to get excited about? Not really, as the trough in question will have the tendency to split, which results in lower confidence in any given solution. The latest NBM maintains 0 QPF areawide even at the 75th percentile.

REST OF UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING

A frontal boundary will continue sweeping through the forecast area bringing northwest winds through the remainder of the period to all sites. Additionally, clouds will be scoured out as drier air fills in, though some valley sites such as KLGU and KHCR may hang on to low stratus into the morning before mixing out in the late morning. Outside of occasional MVFR CIGs at those two sites, VFR conditions will prevail through the period.

SLC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

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