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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Happy Friday, Utah! It’s been a cloudy start to Friday for Northern Utah with moisture increasing ahead of a trough moving in from the Pacific Northwest.
It’s working its way south into the Great Basin, where the trough is expected to close off tonight and hang around for a few days. Mostly cloudy skies have been around northern Utah, and more will roll in as the system pushes a weak front through this afternoon and evening. Moisture is pretty limited, but scattered snow showers should start in the northern mountains this afternoon.
The bottom line? Scattered snow and cold temperatures return to the state this weekend.
By early Saturday, the front will stall over northern Utah as the trough continues to close off. Snowfall will focus along the stalled front throughout the day. The big question is: where exactly will the snow band set up?
Models suggest it’ll likely be somewhere between Salt Lake City and Fillmore along the I-15 corridor. Snow will be steady but light, so valley accumulations will stay minimal, and mountain totals should be in the 4-8″ range under the snow band.
Snowfall of 1-4″ is expected from the Salt Lake Valley to roughly Fillmore with the higher totals in between the two. Areas outside of that won’t see much accumulating snowfall.
By Saturday evening, snow will start to taper off as the low drifts west, weakening the front. A few lingering showers may stick around into Sunday morning before the system moves south toward southern California, pulling moisture out of the state.
Looking into next week, the low is expected to slowly crawl across Arizona between late Monday and Thursday. This will bring light snow to southern Utah, mainly around the Brian Head area and down across the Arizona Stateline, with snow likely through Tuesday. While there’s still some uncertainty about totals, accumulations should stay on the lighter side, with the mountains seeing a few inches of snow.
Midweek, a ridge over the west coast will nudge into northern Utah, bringing gradual warming. There’s still some question about the weather pattern later in the week, but there’s a decent chance of more active weather heading into next weekend.
We’ll continue to refine the forecast as the storm nears and keep you up-to-date on the latest developments in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online, we are Good4Utah!