Snow and Storm Snippets

 A few thoughts on snow and weather as we approach the last weekend of the holiday period.

• It's been a decent week for skiers like myself who aren't interested in warm weather and bluebird skies.  Conditions at Mountain Dell and Round Valley have been good for skating and I've had a couple of good tours in low-angle trees as well.  

• I normally exile myself from the Cottonwood Canyons during the holiday week, but toured twice in Big Cottonwood, finding no lineup at the bottom and parking for our group at Spruces.  This is a small sample size, but the traffic has seemed surprisingly manageable.  Perhaps pay-to-park or the lack of sunny skies has helped.  Things may change tomorrow when the Wasangeles Snakers may be coming back to town after tonight's big dump.  There may also be <gasp> sun this weekend, especially on Sunday.  

• Snowpack relative to median in the central and northern Wasatch is either near- or below median depending on location.  Snowbird has the most robust snowpack of any SNOTEL station in the central and northern Wasatch.  Thaynes Canyon also running a bit above median.  The rest are below median (this is as of last night so a bit of the overnight snowfall isn't captured).  

• It's looking like a Greatest Snow on Earth special for tomorrow.  There will be mountain snowshowers today, and then widespread snow developing this afternoon and evening as a front moves through the area.  Looks like a pretty good event for all elevations.  Through 9 AM tomorrow morning, the GFS and NAM are going for 13" and 17" respectively at Alta-Collins with water contents in the 6-8% range.  I'll go for 12-18" through 9 AM tomorrow.  Additionally, this will be an all-elevations storm and Mountain Dell should benefit too.  Monitor forecasts and road conditions if you need to travel.  

• Following the front, we have a prolonged period of cold-unstable air through Saturday morning with a cold upper-level trough moving over Utah Friday night.  It's a crapshoot exactly how things will play out, but additional accumulations look likely for at least the Cottonwoods.  

• Saturday morning looks to be the end of this storm cycle with a ridge building over Utah for Sunday.   Right now, the extended pattern looks progressive, so the ridge won't be long lived.  Let's hope more storms follow.