Storm-total snowfalls reported on the NWS web site for locations in the Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys:
And in the Wasatch Mountain south of I-80:
Bottom line: There is remarkably little difference between the lowland and mountain snowfall in this case, as discussed in an earlier post. Even overnight, when I thought we'd see more orographic precipitation enhancement, there was little. This case provides a great example of why the use of a climatological precipitation-elevation relationship to downscale or redistribute coarse-resolution numerical guidance can be dangerous. At issue is whether or not one could reliably anticipate a similar event in the future.
There was also a Christmas week event maybe in December 2003 that dropped a lot of snow. I remember perhaps 2x as much on the ground in the yard with that event. My recollection is that the pattern was one where the lake was a significant player as numerous waves rotated through a slow moving trough.
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