A whole lot of snow is headed to Utah this weekend, but if you avoid the mountains and the canyons, you’ll miss most of it.
Salt Lake City may get 3-4 inches — but the northern Utah mountains may get 3–4 feet, with even more in some areas.
“And it’s not going to be the typical kind of light, fluffy, powdery snow,” said David Church, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City. “It’ll be more of the heavy, wet variety for the mountains.”
“That’s good for building water supply — which, for drought purposes, is a great thing,” he added.
Across northern Utah, a winter storm watch is in effect until 5 a.m. Monday, carrying a 90-100% chance of precipitation. The forecast calls for a “warm and wet system.”
“For the valleys, we’re not looking at a ton of impact,” Church said. “Valleys will pretty much stay rain through the weekend.”
Saturday in particular will be pretty mild, Church said, with temperatures in the mid-40s in Salt Lake City. But a cold front is expected Sunday afternoon.
That’s when Salt Lake City could see about 1-4 inches of snow. In the mountains, particularly above 7,000 feet, “quite a bit of snow” will fall — “especially in the northern Wasatch and central Cottonwoods,” Church said.
How much is quite a bit of snow? For most of the mountains, that’s about 1-3 feet. But ski areas in northern Utah may get considerably more than that, Church estimated: “30 inches on the low end, up to 54 inches on the high end.”
(That’s 4½ feet, by the way.)
If the forecast is correct, the storm will be in the neighborhood of the 90th percentile for the amount of precipitation this weekend — “even for this time of year,” which Church said is considered our “wet” season.
“If we’re going to get these events, this is certainly when we’re going to get them,” Church said. “Now, in terms of the magnitude of it … it certainly is up there in terms of water amounts.”
In the Salt Lake City area, December has already been considerably snowier than usual. In an average year, the area gets 12.1 inches of snow in December; as of Thursday, the area had received 22.6 inches.
That’s only 1.1 inches more snow than December 2021, but it’s 20.8 inches more than December 2020. And it’s the most snow Salt Lake City has seen in the month of December since 2007.
This weekend, though, the most snow and the greatest driving hazards will be at higher elevations.
“There’s going to be difficult travel through the mountain routes,” Church said. “And for those trying to get to the ski areas, just know that it’s going to be pretty difficult with heavy snow rates.”
He advised travelers to prepare, in more ways than one:
“Make sure your vehicles are properly equipped,” he said, “and you have everything you need in case you get stuck — like warm blankets and food supplies.”