It's a weird system. Tonight, cold air will actually be moving into northern Utah from the southwest ahead of an approaching upper-level low that is bringing much-needed precipitation to California today. Precipitation is expected to develop over the mountains and valleys very late tonight or early tomorrow morning as the trough axis moves across northern Utah. Snow levels during this period will be dropping and we could pick up enough to whiten grassy areas of the benches. Even the valley floor will probably see some flakes. I suspect the roads on campus will remain OK, but keep an eye on the forecasts tonight and plan some extra time just in case.
After that, there's the potential for instability showers and thunderstorms (rain or snow at lower elevations after noon, snow in the mountains), and the passage of a weak secondary trough tomorrow evening.
Our NAM-based forecast for Alta shows the heaviest precipitation with the system tomorrow morning, with some additional accumulations late in the day adding up to a total of about 7 inches. The odds of snow at Alta tomorrow morning are pretty good. Everything after that is a crap shoot depending on where the spring storms get going (and where they don't). My best guess is a total of 6-12 inches through late Wednesday night.
Of course, I've been on the low side most of this year. You can always hope for more.
Crap Shoot, Huh. When I hear that term I always visualize some sort of messy form of Skeet Shooting. Perhaps, involving a cow pasture. More fun than this past ski season.
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