Memories of a Big June Storm

Sixteen years ago this month, my son Erik was born.  Sixteen years ago today, Alta was pounded by a mid-June snowstorm.  I remember it well because I went to Alta and retrieved some of the fresh sow to bring home for a proper powder baptism the following day.  It was a stormy scene at Alta that day and, although I didn't make turns, I jealously looked up the mountain at others who were getting face shots.

On that day, the weather was dominated by a deeper, colder trough than today that moved directly through Utah.

Source: NOAA/ESRL

700-mb temperatures reached -4ºC.

Source: ESRL

So today's weather is a big shift from what we've had the past few weeks, but we've seen deeper, colder troughs in mid June.  No need to declare an end to global warming.  

Nevertheless, it looks like we'll get some mountain snow at upper-elevations today.  Travel over high-elevation roads like the Mirror Lake Highway might be quite difficult.  For Alta, I'm sticking with my forecast of a couple to a few inches.  For a bigger dump, we'll need the frontal precipitation region expected to intensify over northern Utah this afternoon to setup over the central Wasatch and be quite productive.  We'll see how things play out.