A Lagging Frontal Snowband

We often think about precipitation being collocated with a surface cold front, but this is not always the case.  Indeed this morning we had some scattered rain and snow showers providing some appetizers ahead of the front, but the main course, a well developed frontal snowband, has developed nicely over the Salt Lake Valley and southern Great Salt Lake over the past hour well behind the surface cold front.

As shown in the meteogram below, the winds at the Salt Lake City airport shifted from southeasterly to northerly from 0730–0940 MST this morning.

However, the frontal snowband developed well behind this surface front.  One can see it filling in over the southern Great Salt Lake, well behind the surface front, at 1800 UTC/1100 MST (click to enlarge).

The frontal band is now over us at the University of Utah.  It should give us a couple of hours of entertainment, but should be out of the way come rush hour.