The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the mountains of northern and central Utah through Monday morning as a series of storms move through the region.
Welcome back, Winter.
As of 5am, overnight snow totals are 4-8" of very low density (5-6% density) snow, pushing total snowfall so far to 10-16" in the upper Cottonwoods and 4-8" along the Park City ridgeline. Mountain temperatures are in the teens at most locations and have dropped into the single digits up high. That's the end of the good news. Stop reading if you can't bear the bad.
The winds played the spoiler, picking up out of the west-northwest overnight, blowing 25-30mph with gusts to 50mph. The highest elevations have wind speeds of 50mph with gusts to 75. One particular violent gust reached 100mph just after midnight. Adding insult to injury, the winds are blowing and drifting the low density snow at the mid-elevations as well. (The bad news is only getting started.)
For today, we'll see a bit of a lull in the snowfall though we could squeeze an additional 3-6" of new during the day. Temps will be in the teens. Winds will blow 25-30mph from the west-northwest.
For tonight, we transition to a strong wet, warm, and windy style of storm that will last through early Monday. Heavy snowfall (particularly in the Ogden area mountains) can be expected with the rain-snowline rising from the valleys to perhaps 6500'+, west-northwest winds averaging 45-50mph and temps warming to the mid-20s. Yuk. 15-30" of storm totals can be expected.
Clearing and diminishing winds are expected later Monday. A grazing storm rides to the north Thursday with another storm possible over the weekend.
Remember that snow coverage is still thin, with 2-4' of snow on the ground...and prior to this storm, many southerly aspects were bare.
By yesterday afternoon, the very low density snow became quite sensitive. Shooting cracks were prevalent and it was easy to trigger shallow (4-8" deep and 40' wide) very soft slabs of wind drifted snow. These all failed within the new snow, just an inch or two above the old rotten snow surface. It only took a whisper of wind. As a sign of things to come, one observer experienced an audible collapse in the snowpack up near Guardsman Pass.
It'll be a completely different game today.
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