Spring Then Summer

This morning begins with a spring sky filled with "cumulus patheticus," clouds with enough coverage to block out the sun for the most part, but not enough depth to generate much precipitation.

The cumulus patheticus is a reflection of the cool, unstable airmass that has taken up residence over northern Utah this week.  It appears that the periods of showers will continue through the weekend, with coverage and intensity tending to be a bit stronger during the daytime and evening thanks to surface heating.  A weak trough passing through Saturday morning may help get things organized as well.  All in all, it's a spring-like pattern.

Then, the models bring in a ginormous ridge.  There's end-to-end agreement on this pattern change whether one looks at the GFS, ECMWF, or their related ensemble modeling systems.

Source: NWS

Should those forecasts verify, we'll be looking at 700-mb temperatures near +4C on Tuesday and perhaps +5C on Wednesday, yielding highs in the airport in low-to-mid 70s and at the base of Alta in the mid 50s.  Technically, that's not summer like, but it's going to feel like it.