This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A weekend's worth of winter is on the way, and the National Weather Service has issued a slew of advisories warning of heavy snowfall, avalanche danger and icy, windy driving conditions across Utah.
Just be glad we are nowhere near, in geography or imagination, George R. R. Martin's "Westeros" or its "Wall," beyond which, Old Nan darkly recounts, "the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north . . . when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness."
Yes, Utah's forecast comparatively is for a chilly paradise. Still, after Friday's valley rains and modest mountain snows, the precipitation Saturday will morph to heavier snowfall in the state's northern and central valleys and accumulate in amounts approaching two feet in the higher elevations.
From 1 p.m. Friday through 8 p.m. Saturday, a Winter Storm Warning was in place for the Wasatch Mountains south of Interstate 80, as well as the western Uintas, Wasatch Plateau and Book Cliffs. Storm totals of 10-20 inches were expected, with locally higher amounts possible.
No surprise, then, that the Utah Avalanche Center issued a Backcountry Avalanche Watch for northern and central Utah's mountain slopes. That advisory started 6 a.m. Friday and runs through 6 a.m. Saturday. As of Friday, the risk for potentially deadly snowslides was graded at "considerable" for the Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake, Provo, Skyline and Uintas districts; "moderate" for the Abajo mountains; and "low" for the Moab area.
A Winter Storm Watch was in place for the southern mountains, including Loa, Panguitch and Bryce Canyon, beginning Friday night and extending into Monday evening. Forecasters expected 1 to 2 feet of snow, more in some locales.
A Winter Weather Advisory also was ordered for Utah's eastern Uintas, as well as the Roan and Tavaputs plateaus from midnight Friday through Saturday night. Stiff winds of 20-35 mph were to add hazard to the snowfall, expected to be in the 5-10 inch range.
The Utah Division of Air Quality initially left "moderate" particulate level grades in place for most of the state going into the weekend, though storm activity likely will freshen the atmosphere this weekend, especially over the inversion-plagued urban valleys of the Wasatch Front.
For more extensive forecast information, visit The Salt Lake Tribune's weather page at: http//www.sltrib.com/weather.
Twitter: @remims